bugGNU Parallel - Bugs: bug #47076, --bibtex option is user-hostile

 
 

bug #47076: --bibtex option is user-hostile

Submitter:  None
Submitted:  Sat 06 Feb 2016 06:43:52 AM UTC
Votes: 1
 
Category:  None Severity:  3 - Normal
Item Group:  None Status:  Wont Fix
Privacy:  Public Assigned to:  None
Open/Closed:  Closed
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Sun 22 Aug 2021 12:53:31 PM UTC, comment #3: 

comment #2:
:

> It breaks usage of the software in non-interactive contexts like scripts.


Making such a bold claim without evidence seems at best misguided, but looks more like spreading FUD.

So far no one has ever been able to provide code that shows this is the case.

Ole Tange <tange>
Group administrator
Tue 11 Aug 2020 11:52:58 AM UTC, comment #2: 

I concur with the OP's take.

But IMHO, the citation notice is more than a nuisance reminiscent of non-free software practices or violating usability principles like Silence is Golden (as observed in the quoted, older thread): It breaks usage of the software in non-interactive contexts like scripts.

The man-page even goes one further:

> If you use --will-cite in scripts to be run by others you are making it harder for others to see the citation notice.
> The development of GNU parallel is indirectly financed through citations, so if your users do not know they should cite
> then you are making it harder to finance development. However, if you pay 10000 EUR, you should feel free to use
> --will-cite in scripts.


This obviously violates (or at least undermines) the fundamental freedoms granted by the GPL.

I can relate to the author's reasoning for making that choice (and of course I am highly grateful and respectful of his phantastic work on the software itself), but don't agree with his conclusions.

Robert Sachunsky <bertsky>
Fri 19 Feb 2016 08:20:09 PM UTC, comment #1: 
Ole Tange <tange>
Group administrator
Sat 06 Feb 2016 06:43:52 AM UTC, original submission:  

I discovered GNU Parallel recently, and it's been very helpful.

But after about the 10th time of seeing eleven lines of text at the top of my job output that virtually accuses me of plagiarism and tries to shame me into including a citation in publications which I will never be writing in the first place, I finally decided to stop the actual work I was doing and re-run the command with the '--bibtex' option to silence that distracting output...

...only to be assaulted by a terminal full of:

Type: 'will cite' and press enter.

>


This was repeated until it filled my terminal's scrollback buffer.  I then had to Ctrl+C the job and run plain 'parallel --bibtex', then type 'will cite', then hit Enter...and then, finally, I was able to actually do the work I was trying to do without being rudely interrupted by eleven lines of output.

The eleven lines of text is offensive, annoying, and substantially interferes with the work the user's attempting to do.  But to then, after the user follows the directions to use the '--bibtex' option to silence these notices, force him to type 'will cite' as if he's promising to stop doing something morally wrong (like /use the software/?), is even more insulting.  It reeks of shareware and nagware, with 15-day trials and "You are required to register this software after your trial expires.  Click here to promise to register this software and stop being an evil thief" dialogs.

I've been using GNU/Linux for at least 15 years, and I can't recall any other software, GNU or otherwise, that treats users in this manner.  I appreciate the many hours of hard work that has been put into this project, but if projects like Emacs don't treat their users this way, why should GNU Parallel?  Quite frankly, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and discourages me from wanting to lend any support to the project as-is.

I hope the project will remove this notice.  Instead, a short, one-or-two-line notice could be placed in the '--help' message and the man page, which is reasonable and common in other projects.


Anonymous

 

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    Follow 3 latest changes.

    Date Changed by Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced by
    2020-08-11 bertsky Carbon-Copy- Added bertsky
    2016-02-19 tange StatusNone Wont Fix
        Open/ClosedOpen Closed

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