I am not sure if this is the proper place for this, mods feel free to move it if appropriate.

I am "writing" a comic engine for a comic I like. I put writing in quotes because at least to me it seems like a fairly minor edit of the xkcd engine, since the two comics use similar organization principles. Basically I am just changing a few of the urls and file names to look for. I would like to do this right from ethical perspective, so I am wondering what the proper method would be to go about giving credit to the person who wrote the code mine is based on. Or was that code itself based on some sort of template that I should be using? I have never written anything for widespread use so I am not sure what the right way to go about it is. Does anyone here know the proper way to do this, or is there a page somewhere that describes conventions for this?

there is a whole book somewhere out there about this topic.... as bruce perens would say... add every name to your list... even if someone wrote only one line of code or gave you the idea for this one line of code.. mention him (or her) in your credits... the more the community is involved the better will be the feedback (and the software) ..

Credit the guy who wrote the code, but be reasonable about it. No one (but RMS) will get **** if you follow common sense. If some guy only contributed 1 line of code, then don't bother crediting him.

"Thanks to Adam, Bob, Chuck, Dave, and others at XYZ Project..."

In this case it is more like I'm the one contributing one line of code (or rather editing maybe a half dozen, although it is a short program).

Like most files in KDE the code is most likely released under the GPL. Just follow that and you will be fine. Basically if there is already a copyright header/file listing the authors then keep it and append your name to it, otherwise you don't need to add anything as it's just an unimportant file.

It isn't so much a matter of the GPL that concerns me, I just want to be courteous and give credit where it is due.

TheBlackCat wrote:In this case it is more like I'm the one contributing one line of code (or rather editing maybe a half dozen, although it is a short program).

IIRC, copyright law considers the main author to be the copyright holder of any trivial contributions. In terms of code, this can vary, but typically one line is considered trivial. If you contribute one line of code to anther project, then you are also handing over copyright. [Please note that this is a ROUGH rule of thumb, talk to your lawyer, some assembly required, etc.]

In terms of common sense, good manners, civility, etc., don't insist on attribution for one line of code. IMHO.

On the other hand, if you're modifying someone else's project, and then redistributing it, then good manners says to inform everyone downstream that they're no longer getting the original.

i guess there is already a copy(left) entry somewhere in the code where the original authors are mentioned ... so add one line there (as brandybuck said) to inform everyone that you edited something ... that should do it.

Just interested, but are you writing that plugin in c++ or in a different language?

The later -- especially QtScript (i.e. JavaScript) -- would be best as your comic plugin then can be uploaded to kde-files.org. Everybody could download it through GHNS then.

If you do not know how to do that in QtScript simply download one of the many comic providers from kde-files.org that works similar to what you need (in this case the xkcd one).

On the original question: I'm not sure myself.

mat69 wrote:If you do not know how to do that in QtScript simply download one of the many comic providers from kde-files.org that works similar to what you need (in this case the xkcd one).

That is exactly what I am doing. But someone else wrote ultimately wrote that provider, which was my concern.

TheBlackCat wrote:

mat69 wrote:If you do not know how to do that in QtScript simply download one of the many comic providers from kde-files.org that works similar to what you need (in this case the xkcd one).

That is exactly what I am doing. But someone else wrote ultimately wrote that provider, which was my concern.

I guess that "someone else" would be me in this case as I'm currently the only one that has published comic plugins on kde-files.org.

Anyway if you're planning to do a plugin in the future and need some help you can write me a PM. I myself hardly know QtScript, but that way you could avoid to waste time on some things I have done before and failed.