[ros-dev] [Vote] Top-level source header

[Royce Mitchell III]

I've seen a disturbing increase of arguments in ros-dev over the last 
year on various issues such as this one, and the direction we're heading 
really has me concerned.

This proposal won't even work for vendor drops, but I'm more concerned 
with the larger picture.

Every time we have a disagreement, we put up a vote so the group can 
decide "this is how it's going to be". What I fear is going to happen is 
the next time someone oversteps something we've voted on, now people 
have an excuse to publically lampoon that person. This is only going to 
drive away developers. ReactOS is still a hobby OS. It's an open source 
project that most of us do because we love the vision of ReactOS and 
mostly because it's fun and rewarding to make it better.

Today, we're voting the exact allowed format of headers - for which 
somebody is going to have the excruciatingly boring job of changing all 
the headers that are non-compliant. What if a year from now we have 30 
more developers and enough are dissatisfied with the header and a new 
vote is taken that changes the format. We're wasting a lot of time and 
energy over something that really doesn't matter! Who cares what the 
format of the header is, really? As long as it conveys the necessary 
copyright information, the rest is fluff. What if someone *wants* or 
feels the need to put more? Now he's going to be penalized because he 
added something unofficial to the official header. This is foolishness.

I'll give a good example of what I'm talking about. We've had various 
heated discussions in the past regarding the subject of code styling. 
Some have proposed to vote on an official style. I and a couple others 
have fought vehemently against setting a hard standard. We all use 
different editors that we're comfortable and most efficient in. And each 
editor has different weaknesses regarding certain code styles. The most 
often proposed code style is poorly handled by the editor I use by 
default, for example.

I think this vote should be cancelled. It has no place in our policies 
and guidelines. Now, if someone wants to step up and pay me for my time 
to develop ReactOS, then I'll happily submit to all the coding 
strictures they feel are necessary. It'd be my place to interject where 
I think they are wrong, but as a paid employee it wouldn't be my place 
to ignore or rebel against them. Until that day, we need to keep ReactOS 
a fun project to work - we've got too much work to do for it to be any 
other way.

I say it again, I think this vote is wrong, and should be cancelled and 
rethought.

Peace,

Royce