TYPO3 Core

Shouldn't the @authors form the functions then go to the class @authors so the author information is not lost?

If we do this now, then when a developer adds a new function to a class also can add his @author annotation to the file. IMHO that is not good. Maybe we need to involve a Release manager here.

That's exactly the way the @author annotations are supposed to work: The initial author is the topmost @author, and when someone adds something non-trivial to the file and they are not listed in the @author yet, they can add themselves to the bottom of the @author list.

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/documentation/index-137868.html#orderoftags

but isn't that why we got git blame and git log? IMO in theory this might be nice but usually it doesn't work out because not always the big changes but the small bugfixes break stuff and the author annotiation isn't updated

Those things serve different purposes:

- git log can be used to get an overview of what was changed in what order
- git blame can be used to find out who last changed which line

@author, on the other hand, serves two other purposes (the way I understand it):

- the @author entries can be used to find out who to ask about the class
- It gives proper and easily accessible credit to the authors. This can be helpful for job applications (to show what open source applications you contributed to in which way) or for getting customers ("Oh, they wrote/contributed to that class. That code looks good - maybe they will be willing to code something for me.") This is more fine-grained than the copyright notice (which only allows one person).

For me, giving (and getting) credit is a very important thing in TYPO3 (and in open source projects in general). The "whom to ask" aspect is secondary to that.

+1 i also like function based author anotations. ;) @Oliver, you're completly right.

I agree with Oliver.

This is not a functional change and it does not add any value. However it removes references to real people, who dedicated time for making the code. Not good at all.

Patch set 2 for branch master has been pushed to the review server.
It is available at http://review.typo3.org/11344

Patch set 3 for branch master has been pushed to the review server.
It is available at http://review.typo3.org/11344

The author in the class indicates who did major work on it. An author in a function can indicate a single contribution.

The whole effort in this issue is a complete waste of time IMO. Author annotations don't hurt anyone.

Can be abandoned.