Why outdated year for copyright on all GNOME user software?

[prifast]

Hello,

see this report. The problem is why in Files and generally in all GNOME user software - current version: August 06, 2020 tested - use outdated year for copyright?

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/nautilus/-/issues/1573
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/nautilus/-/issues/1573#note_885373

[arnaudb]

It’s quite easy to forget to update the technical copyright notices in code files (the first time you touch it…), and the same for the one in the About dialog. I think that’s the main reason while this text is usually not up-to-date.

By the way, as changing the string from the About dialog forces all translations to be updated (in all maintained branches), I’ve decided some time ago to switch it to _("Copyright \xc2\xa9 %u-%u – Arnaud Bonatti").printf (2016, 2020) as that allows updating the year without changing the string. Maybe other developers could do the same.

[mlundblad (Marcus Lundblad)]

Will that use localized digits? (it’s Vala right?)
In JS, you could do something like:
let years = [2016, 2020];
let message = _(“Copyright \xc2\xa9 %u-%u %s - %s”).format(years[0].toLocaleString(), years[1].toLocaleString());

[arnaudb]

It’s Vala, yes.

Will that use localized digits?

No, it won’t. I am (was?) under the impression that for noting years, arabic numerals are clear enough in any languages, and are notably better near a copyright sign. Maybe I’m wrong here… If so, I think there’s a gettext way to insert numbers in a string using localized numerals, but I don’t remember how that’s done exactly.

[matthiasc (Matthias Clasen)]

To answer the question in the subject: Most people consider this sort of thing pointless busywork.

[ebassi (Emmanuele Bassi)]

Please, stop using “Copyright ©”. The “©” symbol already means “copyright”, so you’re literally writing “copyright copyright”.

You should only ever use “©” if you don’t have enough room to write “copyright”; otherwise just omit it.

Edited, to add: You don’t need to write the current year. It’s useless. Just add the year when the file was created or the application was written, and then ignore the rest.