UI

[Holger Schurig]

>I hope the low frequency of patches is mostly due to my restrictive
>handling of patches (due to the FSF requirements) :-)

I once send something in --- to start, I send a little documentation 
update. Werner immediately said back "No, you have to sign something, 
otherwise I can't accept stuff from you" (which is PERFECTLY ok, I 
don't want to ... hmmm, in German I would say that "dass ich Werner 
nicht an den Karren pinkeln wuerde" but I guess that an english 
translation totally looses the meaning :-)


However, I tried to get some answer from FSF.ORG, from "info 
standards" and also from Werner WHAT to actually sign, but never really 
with any usable response. "info standards" for example just says:

-----------------------------------------
   If someone else sends you a piece of code to add to the program you
are working on, we need legal papers to use it--the same sort of legal
papers we will need to get from you.  *Each* significant contributor to
a program must sign some sort of legal papers in order for us to have
clear title to the program.  The main author alone is not enough.

   So, before adding in any contributions from other people, tell us so
we can arrange to get the papers.  Then wait until we tell you that we
have received the signed papers, before you actually use the
contribution.
-----------------------------------------

However, it says not WHAT channel to use to "tell them" (e-mail, fax,
phone, letter) nor does the www.fsf.org website. So it's still a big
obscurity to me and I won't send in any patches anymore. For exampl,e
it would have been totally easy for me to make a patch (or using CVS
if that is ok) for the GDBM-not-installed problem. But because no one 
so far could tell me what to sign I could not check and sign anything, 
so Werner can't accept anything but "unsignifant" from me so the world 
has to life without my contributions.

Hmm, maybe that's better for the world anyway :-)


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Holger Schurig               |  OM Standard Linux Server:
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