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In this thread: Wildly different definitions of what "widely used" means :) Did you know tools like uname [1] and cat [2] in GNU coreutils have essentially onl

In this thread: Wildly different definitions of what "widely used" means :) Did you know tools like uname [1] and cat [2] in GNU coreutils have essentially only had two contributors in the past decade? [1] http://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=history;f=src/uname.c;h=1ddaa34a2f1c76c94dcef1827e09b54688949343;hb=master http://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=histor... [2] http://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=history;f=src/cat.c;h=c7bb7e132c36c0fc800973a0eb00ceea12bcb8a6;hb=master http://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=histor...

delusional 2y ago
And most of what happens in those utilities is updating the copyright year numbers.
- latexr 2y ago
  Which seems wholly unnecessary. The way I understand it, having only the starting year is sufficient.
  - regularfry 2y ago
    Absent any changes in a year, the copyright year shouldn't be updated. Otherwise what you're claiming is that the copyright term starts from a date after creation of the content, so it's getting artificially extended.
    - dartos 2y ago
      Every time you change code and commit it, is it not a new program? New editions of books have new copyright years, since they’re new books. Same thing with code
      - regularfry 2y ago
        That's why my first word was "absent".
    - latexr 2y ago
      The change in question isn’t about going from “Copyright (C) 2023” to “Copyright (C) 2024” but from “Copyright (C) 1998-2023” to “Copyright (C) 1998-2024”. Thus your case doesn’t apply, it’s not confusing. What I’m saying is that as far as I understand, having “Copyright (C) 1998” and not changing it would suffice.
      - regularfry 2y ago
        Yes, I read your comment as saying that having the starting year and changing it every year would be sufficient. Which it isn't, but I've seen it often enough elsewhere that it's worth calling out.
  - Someone 2y ago
    Reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_formalities#Shift_away_from_formalities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_formalities#Shift_aw..., even that isn’t necessary (at the moment) in a large part of the world. Nevertheless I wouldn’t dare make any claim on this. Even in the presence of the Berne convention (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention) the world is large and diverse.
Maken 2y ago
I'm actually surprised by the amount of changes in 'cat'. One would assume a program like that is already 'done'.
- mauvehaus 2y ago
  Starting in ~2008, the ones marked 'maint' and 'all' touch multiple files and don't appear to make substantive changes to e.g. cat. Since that categorization started, only 10 of the changes have been specific to cat.
- rollcat 2y ago
  > I'm actually surprised by the amount of changes in 'cat'. "'cat -v' considered harmful" is an ongoing meme, but there's truth to it. http://harmful.cat-v.org/cat-v/ http://harmful.cat-v.org/cat-v/ cat(1) concatenates files. Some software should be considered done.
- danirod 2y ago
  To be fair, there are a lot of commits that just update copyright years or documentation. IMHO that's just regular housekeeping and cannot mean that cat was not "done" in first place.
- Izkata 2y ago
  How about the history for "true": https://github.com/coreutils/coreutils/commits/master/src/true.c https://github.com/coreutils/coreutils/commits/master/src/tr...

delusional 2y ago

And most of what happens in those utilities is updating the copyright year numbers.

latexr 2y ago
Which seems wholly unnecessary. The way I understand it, having only the starting year is sufficient.
- regularfry 2y ago
  Absent any changes in a year, the copyright year shouldn't be updated. Otherwise what you're claiming is that the copyright term starts from a date after creation of the content, so it's getting artificially extended.
  - dartos 2y ago
    Every time you change code and commit it, is it not a new program? New editions of books have new copyright years, since they’re new books. Same thing with code
    - regularfry 2y ago
      That's why my first word was "absent".
  - latexr 2y ago
    The change in question isn’t about going from “Copyright (C) 2023” to “Copyright (C) 2024” but from “Copyright (C) 1998-2023” to “Copyright (C) 1998-2024”. Thus your case doesn’t apply, it’s not confusing. What I’m saying is that as far as I understand, having “Copyright (C) 1998” and not changing it would suffice.
    - regularfry 2y ago
      Yes, I read your comment as saying that having the starting year and changing it every year would be sufficient. Which it isn't, but I've seen it often enough elsewhere that it's worth calling out.
- Someone 2y ago
  Reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_formalities#Shift_away_from_formalities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_formalities#Shift_aw..., even that isn’t necessary (at the moment) in a large part of the world. Nevertheless I wouldn’t dare make any claim on this. Even in the presence of the Berne convention (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention) the world is large and diverse.

Maken 2y ago

I'm actually surprised by the amount of changes in 'cat'. One would assume a program like that is already 'done'.

mauvehaus 2y ago
Starting in ~2008, the ones marked 'maint' and 'all' touch multiple files and don't appear to make substantive changes to e.g. cat. Since that categorization started, only 10 of the changes have been specific to cat.
rollcat 2y ago
> I'm actually surprised by the amount of changes in 'cat'. "'cat -v' considered harmful" is an ongoing meme, but there's truth to it. http://harmful.cat-v.org/cat-v/ http://harmful.cat-v.org/cat-v/ cat(1) concatenates files. Some software should be considered done.
danirod 2y ago
To be fair, there are a lot of commits that just update copyright years or documentation. IMHO that's just regular housekeeping and cannot mean that cat was not "done" in first place.
Izkata 2y ago
How about the history for "true": https://github.com/coreutils/coreutils/commits/master/src/true.c https://github.com/coreutils/coreutils/commits/master/src/tr...