Re: [gNewSense-users] GPL license in code

[Peter and Jesse]

On Sun, 2008-13-04 at 01:11 -0400, Bake Timmons wrote:
> > I didn't realize it before, but grepping through the source, these calls
> > are all over the place. I think we're going to have to rethink our whole
> > process. I guess another script could automate it pretty easily (that
> > being the whole point of the call). Here's a couple of examples that
> > were called "no license" but has MODULE_LICENSE in them:
> 
> I have been losing confidence that everyone might agree on a single
> process such as making the same summary on the examples that you have
> presented here, so I will be pushing for inclusion of license comments
> from the files in the wiki pages such as what kfv.el does by default.
> The good thing is that has been happening much more often in the past
> few weeks, I believe.

This has been working so far, but kfv.el does not include the
MODULE_LICENSE statements, since they are part of the code.

> We can always have more and better scripts.  Even if they do not end up
> very often changing the ultimate license summaries for files, they could
> do a much better job at helping to present the reasoning behind the
> summaries.  There could be some interesting automated cross-referencing
> also, such at the generation of new kinds of wiki tables listing files
> that were flagged due to various issues, such as the inconsistencies
> that you noted.
> 
> Did you have anything else in mind when it comes to rethinking our
> process?  I suppose it is something we will regularly need to do, kinda
> the way like software is revised. :)

I spent all morning thinking about this. This is what I came up with:
1. Continue what we've been doing. kfv.el is a great script for what it
does, which is check the header comments for license statements.
2. Run another script that compares the MODULE_LICENSE license with the
license on the wiki. If it is better (i.e. more specific) then it would
replace the license identification on the wiki. This script would also
add the MODULE_LICENSE call to the wiki.

Eventually, kfv.el could also include step two. I'd be happy to work on
this script, but I'm not familiar enough with LISP to work on kfv.el.
 Peter