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Subject:Re: Who's the author? From:Beverly Parks <bparks -at- HUACHUCA-EMH1 -dot- ARMY -dot- MIL> Date:Fri, 10 Feb 1995 07:59:20 MST
I've not been contributing to this thread, but I have been
reading it with interest. It has opened up another question in
my mind that I'd like to throw out to the List.
Let's say your company "inherits" a software product that was developed
by another company. The associated documentation bears the proud
author's name.
Slowly, through say three or four major releases, the contents
of that documentation change so much that by release five, the
documentation no longer resembles the original as received by
you.
At what point do you remove the original author's name?
I believe that credit should be given where credit is due. But
in these days of "living documents" where several people, not
one the original author, can modify a document as it "evolves,"
is it perhaps best to omit individual names from document
credits?
(Software documentation may have been a bad example--most users
manuals and such don't list an individual author, but rather a
company name. A better example might be internal reports, plans,
and studies.)
=*= Beverly Parks =*= bparks -at- huachuca-emh1 -dot- army -dot- mil =*=
=*= "Unless otherwise stated, all comments are my own. =*=
=*= I am not representing my employer in any way." =*=
