Re: Standardized file headers?

On 4/22/26 2:13 PM, Stavros Macrakis wrote:

> Under current copyright law, a copyright statement is not required: 
> works are "born copyrighted" and no copyright notice is required.
> And, by the way, in the old "notice" regime, the "(c)" was neither 
> required nor meaningful. It was only necessary if there wasn't room 
> for the full word "copyright", but the only legally accepted version 
> was the exact symbol ©.
>
> The copyright notice serves to warn people that the work is copyrighted.
> But just as importantly, we should notify people that it is licensed 
> under the GPL. Every file should include a reference to the license, 
> something like this:
>
> ;;; -*-  Mode: Lisp; Package: Maxima; Syntax: Common-Lisp; Base: 10 
> -*- ;;;;
> ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
> ;;;                ;;;;;
> ;;;  Copyright 1984,1987 by William Schelter, University of Texas      
>  ;;;;;
> ;;;  Copyright 1982 Massachusetts Institute of Technology              
> ;;;;;
> ;;;  Copyright 2000-2026 The Maxima Project ;;;;;
> ;;;  The Maxima Project includes those listed in AUTHORS              
>  ;;;;;
> ;;;                                              ;;;;;
> ;;;  Licensed under the Gnu General Public License (GPL), version 2    
> ;;;;;
> ;;;  The full text of the GPL is in the file COPYING                  
>  ;;;;;
> ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

This is fine for old code or for the new files I’ve created that 
basically contain old code. It’s also appropriate for existing files 
because I suspect all files have been modified since the original DOE 
copy that Bill had.

I don’t find this appropriate for new code. Neither MIT, UT, nor William 
Schelter had anything to do with it. (Like Barton’s hypergeometric.lisp, 
I think.) Probably just remove those lines and leave the Maxima project 
line. Maybe a URL as well to the website. And I suspect AUTHORS is not 
completely true.

>
> And we should include the line about 2000-2026, because otherwise 
> someone might think (incorrectly) that the copyright lapsed N years 
> after 1987.
>
> We should include the updated text in all our files.
>
> Adding the line about Copyright 2000-2026 The Maxima Project clarifies 
> who the legal owners are, which is necessary if we ever have to sue 
> anyone.
> IANAL and I'm sure this isn't perfect, but I think it's better than 
> what we have.
>
> On Wed, Apr 22, 2026 at 3:58 PM Raymond Toy <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>     While working on breaking some circular dependencies, I need to
>     create some new files. What is the appropriate header for these
>     files. We seem to have a lot of styles, and of course, we have the
>     old original version:
>
>     |;;; -*- Mode: Lisp; Package: Maxima; Syntax: Common-Lisp; Base:
>     10 -*- ;;;;
>     ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
>     ;;; The data in this file contains enhancements. ;;;;; ;;; ;;;;;
>     ;;; Copyright (c) 1984,1987 by William Schelter,University of
>     Texas ;;;;; ;;; All rights reserved ;;;;;
>     ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
>     ;;; (c) Copyright 1982 Massachusetts Institute of Technology ;;;
>     ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
>     |
>
>     The mode line is fine. But the rest is really rather outdated. I’m
>     not proposing we change these in existing files, but we should
>     have a standardized one for new files. There should probably be a
>     copyright statement. I guess a mention of the copyright in COPYING
>     would work?
>
>     &#8203;
>     _______________________________________________
>     Maxima-discuss mailing list
>     [email protected]
>     https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/maxima-discuss
>
&#8203;

_______________________________________________
Maxima-discuss mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/maxima-discuss