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Re: [cross-project-issues-dev] Copyrights and org.eclipse.license

The behavior that the “About” dialog’s “Features” tab actually shows branding plugins rather than features themselves has been discussed in the past:

 

https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=163169

 

And, maybe related:

 

https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=83985

https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=73768

 

I can only guess what the original authors of the “about” box code wanted to achieve.

It looks like one idea was filtering contents to show “what’s relevant to an end user” rather than “what’s technically in the installation”.

And that for an author of a feature, writing a branding plugin was the way to express “being relevant” along with the desire contributing to the about box.

No branding plugin, no about box entry.

 

A side effect of this design decision is the coupling of icons to about box content, and the way how providers / icons are grouped together.

Looking at the sometimes long list of icons in the about box of a typical enterprise eclipse install makes me understand to some extent the reason why about box contents is filtered.

 

The implication that there is no way looking at the “Copyright” of a feature that has no branding plugin is an odd side-effect.

Perhaps the thinking was that “Copyright” is only relevant to programmers looking at source code of a feature (ie those who are in the position to “copy” anything), and not the end users.

 

Thanks,

Martin

--

Martin Oberhuber, SMTS / Product Owner – Development Tools, Wind River

direct +43.662.457915.85  fax +43.662.457915.6

 

From: cross-project-issues-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:cross-project-issues-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David M Williams
Sent: Sunday, May 25, 2014 10:54 AM
To: Cross project issues
Subject: Re: [cross-project-issues-dev] Copyrights and org.eclipse.license

 

Ah, so that's your question. Well, then I can definitely say I don't know the answer.
I suspect your right, it's related to if a feature has a "branding bundle" (or direct descendent of one that does) ... I know "root feature" also play a role (at least on that "overview" page ... but, in many cases, I don't think "we" want to show users ALL features ... There's just be too many.

I do know that "source features (and bundles)" are deliberately not shown (as being too much clutter) but ... I'm not sure what mechanism accomplishes that (because when we first moved to Tycho, they were displayed, and I forget the bug number and the fix "they" had to make to get them recognized and not displayed.

For debugging, I always ask for the "Configuration" page, which I do think has a "complete list" of features and plugins (search for '***').

Hope that helps, and perhaps another reader can answer your question more directly.




From:        Ed Willink <ed@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To:        Cross project issues <cross-project-issues-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>,
Date:        05/25/2014 02:22 AM
Subject:        Re: [cross-project-issues-dev] Copyrights and org.eclipse.license
Sent by:        cross-project-issues-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx





Hi David

Let me try a simpler question since we seem to be being confused by P2 repositories and the running installation.

What is the purpose of the Eclipse SDK Installation Details Features page?

My expectation is that it should list every feature that is successfully installed/resolved in the running installation. Further I expect that the plugin details button enable me to identify every plugin associated with the feature.

Currently many  features are not listed and many plugins are not shown, so either my expectation or the page is at fault.

    Regards

        Ed Willink


On 25/05/2014 07:05, David M Williams wrote:
Ed, I don't really know the answer to some of your questions (not sure I understand what question you have, exactly) ... but, pretty sure it not a "a bug in the Features page".  One of the reasons some reports are given as they are, is that some may have use for p2 repositories and their metadata "above and beyond" how Eclipse specifically uses them. To quote the p2 wiki: "Although p2 has specific support for installing Eclipse and Equinox-based applications, it includes a general-purpose provisioning infrastructure that can be used as the basis for provisioning solutions for a wide variety of software applications."

So, yes, some reports are not that important for the "Simultaneous Release" per se ... but ... might be important for a "perfect repository" (which in theory, could be used by some other client ... though I know of no specific ones). That's why I always try emphasize only the most important ones, in my notes, and the order the reports are listed, and remind everyone if you find the other useful, fine, if not, then you can ignore them. I appreciate that "Buckminster" is making good use of it for project builds, which is great, and I'm sure if some reports "get in the way" someone will figure out a good patch to allow some report or test to be "configured". (I've heard of "requests" for that ... but, don't think anyone has opened a specific bug on it).


Hope that helps, a little.






From:        
Ed Willink <ed@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To:        
Cross project issues <cross-project-issues-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>,
Date:        
05/24/2014 10:30 AM

Subject:        
Re: [cross-project-issues-dev] Copyrights and org.eclipse.license
Sent by:        
cross-project-issues-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx





Hi David

'properties' is sort of the answer, but it's more mysterious.

----

I have been reviewing the Eclipse SDK Installation Details Features page since this is the only place where I think users get to see a formatted feature copyright.

I'm puzzled since I found it difficult to understand what this page actually displays. Far from displaying all installed features, as I assumed, it appears to show:

- all features that either have an explicit branding plugin or a plugin with the same id as the feature (? an implicit branding plugin).
- copyright details taken from the 'branding' plugin featureText property.

There are therefore a large number of installed features that are not displayed. (Over 50% for my projects).

copyright text in feature.properties is redundant, since only the branding plug about.properties is used.

----

It seems that every feature should have a branding plugin to populate the Eclipse SDK Installation Details Features page using
- about.ini with an aboutText=%featureText property
- about.properties with a featureText=... property

----

Back to my original question.

It seems that there should be a

copyright=...

in every feature.properties in order to silence the Buckminster warning.

The text of this copyright is only visible by manually reading the properties file (or perhaps using a properties file API).

----

Is the above analysis correct and if so how much of it is a bug in the Features page?

    Regards

        Ed Willink


On 08/05/2014 15:25, David M Williams wrote:
Ed,

Not sure ... of the answer, or what you are asking, but will answer anyway, and maybe I'll get lucky :)

As with "license" (SUA) text, there are actually two sources ... one in property files, and one in repository metadata (in content.jar/xml). Since that report mentions "repo" at the top, believe its looking at repository data.

Whereas in Eclipse SDK "about" it's probably coming from property file.

If I recall, from top of my head, in most cases in "Eclipse UI", there are few (or no?) places to see the copyright as it appears in repository -- for bundles --  (perhaps in runtime targets -- not sure) ... so the report is probably not that useful -- for bundles ... but, features can display their "copyright" before you install something ... and that comes from content.xml/jar file. But, once installed, it comes from properties file. I think (again, depending on my poor memory) the one in property files "comes from" what's defined for plugin.xml, but the one in metadata comes from an OSGi header in bundle ... that few people use.

= = == = = = = =

Christian,

I'm no lawyer :) but you are probably correct they'd find it a "valid" copyright statement.

... I have a question. Why does the word „Copyright“ has to be at the beginning and why does it make a difference if it is not ?


org.eclipse.riena.build.feature.core.sdk.e4.feature.group   6.0.0.v20140506_6_0_0_M7b
 ******************************************************************************* * Copyright (c) 2007 - 2013 compeople AG and others. * All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials * are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0 * which accompanies this distribution, and is available at *
http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html * * Contributors: * compeople AG - initial API and implementation *******************************************************************************


But, I am a human, and can definitively say it does not look pretty! :)

On the one hand, the report is doing you a favor since such lines often indicate an "end of line" or "extra" continuation character got added. That is, doubt you intended to have so many asterisks at the beginning of your copyright statement. Did you?
And on the other hand, I think I'm just looking for something that approaches the Eclipse Foundation's  "standard" display ... such as see
http://www.eclipse.org/legal/guidetolegaldoc.php section 4.3, Features Licenses and Feature Update Licenses. I other words, I think best if we all had a consistent, professional look to such "copyright" statements (at the bottom of that figure). Does yours look ok, there, or do you see the string of asterisks?

= = = = = =

All, these reports are intended to help you. They are not perfect. Improvements welcome. And if you don't find them useful, you can ignore them. Well, except for a few cases. We'll soon start to "fail builds" if "legal files" missing, etc. but doubt we ever would "fail" for "indeterminate" cases of copyright's ... but ... might, someday, not for June, if missing completely.  


Thanks,







From:        
Ed Willink <ed@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To:        
Cross project issues <cross-project-issues-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>,
Date:        
05/08/2014 08:12 AM

Subject:        
[cross-project-issues-dev] Copyrights and org.eclipse.license
Sent by:        
cross-project-issues-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx





Hi David

While checking http://build.eclipse.org/simrel/luna/reporeports/reports/copyrights.html, I see that my plugins are reported as

"Indeterminant: feature's copyright text contains the word 'copyright' but not at beginning:"

which seems to be the same story as Hudson complaining that %copyright is undefined when re-using org.eclipse.license.

However when I check the copyrights in Eclipse SDK Installation Details|Features it seems that something has done a good job of deducing the copyright as:

(c) Copyright Eclipse contributors and others. 2003, 2014.  All rights reserved.

Visit
https://projects.eclipse.org/projects/modeling.mdt.ocl

so I was impressed and ignored the Hudson warnings.

If there is clever code providing the copyright, why doesn't your report find it?

Any idea where the clever code is?

   Regards

       Ed Willink_______________________________________________
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