commented out parts of functs.mac. More generally, refereeing "share" or other contributions



maxima-bounces at math.utexas.edu wrote on 04/28/2009 09:45:54 AM:

> Robert Dodier wrote: 
> On 4/25/09, Barton Willis <willisb at unk.edu> wrote:
> 
> 
> package_info("functs");
> 
>     author: unknown,
>     maintainer: unknown,
>     approved by: nobody,
>     revision: XXX,
>     location: share/simplification,
>     regression tests: none,
>     last update: last Tuesday,
>     ...)
> 
> 
> To the extent that any of this stuff is known, it's in CVS.
> I don't think it's worth the trouble of duplicating it.
> 
> I disagree.  I think that the author of a program should have his or
> her name IN the file. How much trouble could this possibly be?

I don't think that there is any disagreement with requiring that authors 
place
their names in files. I suggested that there could be a mechanism where a 
user
could extract such information from a Maxima command line. It's a (very) 
low
priority idea (and not something that I would work on, I think).

Grump: Simply knowing the author doesn't always tell the user all that 
much, by the way.
For example, you can read that a professor of mathematics wrote 
abs_integrate. That's no 
guarantee of high quality. Sure, if the code misbehaves, a user can try to 
send me a note. 

Barton