[pmwiki-users] [O-T] Re: Re: Request for changing the default upload policy

[H. Fox]

On 12/29/05, Patrick R. Michaud <pmichaud at pobox.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 29, 2005 at 03:42:05AM -0700, H. Fox wrote:
> > > PS. I can see that it might make things easier for Windows users who use
> > > the file extension to control what type a file is.
> >
> > Exactly.
> >
> > To some (ironically not including myself) the extension is important.
> > That's why I think it's helpful to include the extension.  Some users
> > don't even see extensions -- they'll only see the icon that indicates
> > it's a text file.  Double-click and it opens in the default text
> > editor.
> >
> > Omitting ".txt" erects an admittedly small barrier, but why have a
> > barrier at all?
>
> The standard for GPL programs is that the license file be called
> "COPYING" [1], so I followed that standard.  We could change it
> to COPYING.txt, but I'll only do that in the context of a larger
> reorganization (which I haven't committed to yet).

In 1991 that was definitely the way to go, and I think it's a standard
that C programmers find right at home, but not a typical PmWiki
installer.  For them, LICENSE.txt is much more appropriate.

As for COPYING.txt vs. LICENSE.txt, I'll let Google search results
make the point:

    about 71,300 for "copying.txt"
    about 2,170,000 for "license.txt"

So, what's that, 30 times more?

If there's a docs/ directory you could cover all bases with a
LICENSE.txt that reads:

   See COPYING.txt

Although I think putting the GPL text in LICENSE.txt gets the job done.

Hagan

p.s.: Since PmWiki is licensed under GPL v2 *or newer*, maybe
LICENSE.txt should read something like this:

    PmWiki is Copyright 2001-2005 Patrick R. Michaud
    pmichaud at pobox.com
    http://www.pmichaud.com/

    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
    the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
    (at your option) any later version.

    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
    GNU General Public License for more details.

    The GNU General Public License is distributed with this program
    (see COPYING.txt) and it is also available online at
    http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl.txt