Someone mentioned today on digg that it was relatively easy to find thousands of developer email addresses by searching for a suitable regexp on Google Code Search. Since I was already bored (hey, I was reading digg, it couldn't have been too busy a day) I decided to search for myself and see what should pop up.

The first couple of pages were unsuprising, mostly links to my modules on CPAN, but then I stumbled across something interesting. In a little program I had never heard of was a copy of Geo::ShapeFile. The fact that they were distributing my module along with their program isn't a big deal, it's licensed under the Artistic license, and they credited me and everything else, what caught my eye about it was this comment in the LICENSE file:

The version of Geo::Shapfile in this distribution includes fixes for machines of different endianness, not yet available on CPAN.

I downloaded the source and perused it a bit and discovered that the author was even kind enough to include RCS files for the libraries that had been modified, which made it very easy to figure out what local changes he had made, and to find that indeed there were fixes for some endian-related issues in the module which have vexed me for quite a while (sadly my current job does not involve mapping, so I don't have as much time to put into this module as I would like). The most interesting part was that the solution he used seems to be better than my own solution had been, and appears to have been written before the problem was first reported to me.

So, have you checked Google to see what people might have neglected to contribute to your projects?

Along the way I also found some other interesting tidbits that I hadn't known...

And last (and certainly least) a reminder that I was even more of a geek in college

We're not surrounded, we're in a target-rich environment!
  • Comment on Finding "Accidental Contributions" with Google Code Search

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Re: Finding "Accidental Contributions" with Google Code Search
by jdporter (Paladin) on Oct 13, 2006 at 02:58 UTC

    Indeed! I was quite surprised (and pleasantly so) to discover that I am the co-author of List::Intersperse. :-)
    (Update: based on convo in FWP; thread archived here, here.)

    I also discovered that someone (Steven Hazel) took my Crypt::RandPasswd and cloned it into Passogva. In addition to a Perl version, which is essentially identical to mine but with some bugfixes, it has Python and PHP versions based on the Perl code. Wow! (Thank you, Mr. Hazel, wherever you are!)

    We're building the house of the future together.
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Re: Finding "Accidental Contributions" with Google Code Search
by jmcnamara (Monsignor) on Oct 13, 2006 at 08:02 UTC

    There are a lot of references to PerlMonks as well.

    --
    John.

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Re: Finding "Accidental Contributions" with Google Code Search
by zby (Vicar) on Oct 13, 2006 at 06:46 UTC
    ++

    I've found out that a quick pod indexer that I've posted some time ago to the DBIx::Class email list is now a basis of some distribution tool: gen-pod-index.pl.

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Re: Finding "Accidental Contributions" with Google Code Search
by jZed (Prior) on Oct 13, 2006 at 14:33 UTC
    Very interesting! Thanks for pointing this out. I wasn't too surprised to see my modules being used by some CPAN distros I didn't know about and even in some commercial bbs and shopping cart apps I didn't know about. The one that surprised me was the reference to DBIx::LiveGrid which I never released! But I guess I put it on my ISP so some monks who read about it here could grab it. So look out kids, those old half-done things (that you always meant to put on CPAN RSN but never did) and you stuck somewhere on the net can end up in google code search! :-)
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        Well, it's not that I didn't want it there, more that I didn't remember it was there :-). If anyone wants to take it over, go for it!
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Re: Finding "Accidental Contributions" with Google Code Search
by Khen1950fx (Canon) on Oct 13, 2006 at 10:54 UTC
    Wow! The Google code search is great. It found my nick and name on CPAN and my writeups on PerlMonks, but it found something else---I just discovered that I'm American Indian. The Department of the Interior, Office of the Special Trustee (OST) for American Indians, has been looking for the heirs of my Father. Evidently, he had money coming to him from IIM---Individual Indian Money account---and I and my sisters and brother are entitled to it. I don't care about the money, but now I know my roots. Thanks, jasonk
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      Hmm - how did you find it via code search?
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Re: Finding "Accidental Contributions" with Google Code Search
by blazar (Canon) on Oct 13, 2006 at 11:07 UTC

    Quite interesting, and indeed without having read this I have nevertheless long and often though that should I ever produce some interesting project, whatever license I choose for it would like to add as an explicit recommendation, but of course not as a requirement for distribution, the expressed wish to be informed of any derivative work of it, if any. Just for curiosity, you know...

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Re: Finding "Accidental Contributions" with Google Code Search
by mr_mischief (Monsignor) on Oct 13, 2006 at 16:06 UTC
    Doing a quick check I didn't find any contributions I didn't previously know about. I did find that I'm still attributed for a contribution I made to one project over five years ago.

    That project has since gone through several revisions and a new major release which has itself had several revisions. They keep a detailed changelog, though, and credit people who made contributions there. It's something I as a contributor really appreciate.

    One thing I've noticed is how hard it can be to use open source contributions to minor projects on a resumé or in a portfolio. There are a number of projects I've made contributions to that have ceased distribution. There's usually no fault there, since so many projects overlap and so many people lose free time or lose interest. Other projects, though, seem to time out attributions in their credits and even their changelogs, which is both illegal and wrong as far as I can tell. Besides being a neat find, perhaps these found attributions can help someone's career or help build a client list.


    Christopher E. Stith
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      Sadly I think it may work the other way for me, some of the projects I have listed on resume from years ago shame me when I stumble across the ugly, ugly code I used to write.

      We're not surrounded, we're in a target-rich environment!
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        Hopefully you'll take the chance to show yourself and others how much and how quickly your skills grew from that point forward.

        Also, if you have the time and will to do it, you could always contribute cleaner code to any project that's still using ugly code you contributed.

        I tend to be a hit-and-run Open Source contributor myself. I'll find a solution that almost meets my needs, customize it, use it in-house or for a client, and contribute back what's useful to the project. Then, I'll go on to deal with another project for another client. Sometimes my code is refactored, rewritten, or flat out removed in favor of another approach by the time I get back to a project and see what's become of it.


        Christopher E. Stith
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