[Rcpp-devel] GPL and R Community Policies (Rcpp)

Perhaps a wider community of R users can weigh in on a
policy decision that was implicitly deemed acceptable on this
thread. Namely, that it is fine to arbitrarily and
for no reason deprecate the contributions of past
authors, and as more progress is made, even more
disparaging remarks can be added.

I agree with Hadley that the remark can hardly be seen as disparaging.
As mainly an R user, I am quite surprised to find out that the rcpp
package originates from you though, so I can understand you would
personally like a line in the sense of

"this package has been originally written by Dominick Samperi in 2005-2006"

But then again, apparently quite a lot changed, so that would -again-
leave a wrong impression and downweigh the effort done by others more
recently. If only the name and a small portion of the code remained,
well, so be it. Seems correct to put it that way. Frankly said: It
ain't your package any more, it's a whole different thing.

Whether or not deprecating the earlier efforts is a policy, is highly
debatable. It seems more a matter of common sense to me: mention the
authors of the _present_ code. And as it goes, I for one am not going
to set "policies" or "politeness rules" in the R community or any
other.

Now personally, I sign the work I do, send it into the world, and
don't bother once I stopped contributing. People who need to know what
I'm worth, will see that in my recent and ongoing work. About all the
rest, I couldn't be bothered less. Seems more healthy for the heart to
me. Then again, I don't care that much about reputation anyway. I'd
like to see my work used, rather than being praised for it. (this is a
general remark, not directed towards you!)

Cheers
Joris

Joris Meys
Statistical consultant

Ghent University
Faculty of Bioscience Engineering
Department of Applied mathematics, biometrics and process control

tel : +32 9 264 59 87
Joris.Meys at Ugent.be
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