Re: bug-standards Digest, Vol 113, Issue 2

[Simon Sobisch]

> Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2020 13:24:01 -0400
> From: ams@gnu.org (Alfred M. Szmidt)
> To: bug-standards@gnu.org
> Subject: mention printing of warranty information in GUI programs
> Message-ID: <E1kUCPZ-0005XT-Az@fencepost.gnu.org>
>
> What do people think about this?
>
> This aims to clarify that we prefer to have such information in both
> --version, and in GUI programs.  This came up in a discussion on
> emacs-devel.
>
> --- standards.texi.~1.268.~   Thu Jul 30 22:34:33 2020
> +++ standards.texi    Sun Oct 18 19:22:12 2020
> @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
>  @setfilename standards.info
>  @settitle GNU Coding Standards
>  @c This date is automagically updated when you save this file:
> -@set lastupdate June 12, 2020
> +@set lastupdate October 18, 2020
>  @c %**end of header
>
>  @dircategory GNU organization
> @@ -962,6 +962,11 @@
>  screen readers (see
>  @url{https://www.gnu.org/accessibility/accessibility.html}).  This should
>  be automatic if you use GTK+.
> +
> +If your program is interactive, please also print the same information
> +as for the @code{--version} option (@pxref{--version}) on program
> +startup, and also provide instructions how to get more information
> +about the copying conditions and warranty details.
>
>  @node Command-Line Interfaces
>  @section Standards for Command Line Interfaces


I think it highly depends on the program and how it is displayed,
therefore a general short sentence rule seems not to be useful.

For example: If I open emacs (not a file but the plain program) it is
perfectly good and useful if it shows the version and the copyright
info, just as VIm does (I don't use emacs so I don't know if this is
already the case) - the information does not disturb anyone, one sees
the information and can open a file.

If the program would open with a window/dialog and maybe even asks me to
click or type "I consent" then this is only fine exactly one time for a
given version. Everything else would render the program much less
useful. "just want to view a file or photo, or hear your sample: then
click before on this information" is like visiting a bad website "watch
this short ad to continue"...
And as our non-interactive programs does not print anything on each
startup (but on explicit request via --version / --help) I don't think
it us useful to do this in either of those places (some people may used
a --nologo switch to not have a compiler/linker show a version and
copyright info when they just wanted to compile/link a source).

In any case every GUI (or TUI) program should have a help->about entry
where this information (and/or the more extensive variant "more
information") can be found.

Simon