Devantech LCD03 driver

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21

Hello,

comments are moderated on his blog… So I don’t think you will see my answer or yours.

Here’s what he sent me by mail when he had to “accept” my comment on the blog :[quote=“Evangelos Georgiou”]Hi Christophe,

Im sorry my blog post upset you so much. I did not in any way claim in the blog post or the video tutorial that the additional library was my own.
It is unnecessary to make any claims about my intelligence, you dont know me!
To be honest I didnt remember where the drivers were sourced from, Im more than happy to make a reference if you provide the link.

Regards,
Evangelos Georgiou[/quote]

“To be honest” :slight_smile:

The fact is that he has removed my name to put his references in the code. This is not fair, and he can’t claim for “honesty” in any way after that.
It’s really not hard to write somewhere “based on the work by XXXX” or “inspired by XXXX on tinyclr.com”.

I don’t know if it’s worth a public lapidation, but I also don’t like this kind of plagiarism. Maybe he’s young and only needs to be taught the correct way of using others’ code ?

About the discipline for commenting, I don’t have it all the time :wink: In fact, in my last code entries, it’s not as documented as the first ones. The main reason (which I know is not a good reason) is that (I think) code length influences the number of points you get when you post a code snippet.
But, comments are not really code, even though it’s very useful. So I don’t want to look like I “need” points or I abuse the system.
Some portions of the code may not need more than one line, for example. Say, the Cursor(x,y) method is pretty straight forward and should need a mere 20 lines but only 1.

But still, in the case of code that would go in a public assembly (which is not necessarily the case, btw), I think that commenting is a good idea. And it’s not that hard with the very good Ghostdoc plugin : SubMain / GhostDoc - Painless Help Documentation

22

@ egeorgiou - I had to leave home after I posted here and so delayed my email answer to you. Since you post here, I will also answer here if you don’t mind.

First, it’s fine you post here to explain. That’s a good point.

About the “code stealing”, what has upset me is that you took the entire code almost without modification except for the I2C commands that were adapted to Netduino board (which is good practice, btw) and the original author’s name that was replaced by yours without even a comment.
This is not good practice.

You can use public code in your projects as long as you don’t act as if you were the author and you’re not. If it’s revealed, like with this small code snippet, your reputation will be damaged, which is not good for you in any way.
You should at least mention that you were inspired by XXX or revamped code made by XXX at http://www.thesitewhereoriginalcodewasposted.com. This has many advantages : the original code may also be useful “as is” for someone else, it can even be improved again to suit other needs, your own code could also be used for another project, and so on…

Now, to close this topic, you could simply put the headers back in the source and add your own credits below. Since you’ve done a useful modification in it (for Netduino users, I mean), you also deserve credits.
In this particular case, you could even comment with your name the lines that were modified since they are not many.

Of course, to also give credits back to GHI which is hosting the original snippet, you can say that you got it here : http://www.tinyclr.com/codeshare/entry/1

On my side, this will definitely close the conflict. I only hope it would serve as a lesson for you in the future : simply think at how you would feel if someone is doing the same exact thing with your code. You probably won’t like it too. It is not a shame to use someone else code, that’s why sharing exists (in many domains, not only programming).

Thank you to have the courage to come and post here.

Christophe

Edit: of course, you can put your links back online after the modifications. I don’t want your code to be hidden or unattainable as it’s also useful for the (Netduino) community.

23

@ Bec a Fuel - A well thought out and mature post, well said.

24

So you got somebody’s code and presented it to the world as your own.
We tried different ways to get your attention to make it right and now we are cyber bullies?!

Why didn’t you make it right after you saw first comments on your blog and this thread was just a one page long?

25

Calling this cyber bullying is a stretch. The gloves came off when you decided to use the code in ignorance of its source. I admittedly tend to get feistier than most here when issues like this arise (they rarely do). Take the loss in stride and don’t publicly sulk about it.

BTW - this is way more fun than the work project I should be focusing on…

26

Well, lets make it clear. My comment was: “It is sad that you took somebody else’s code and presented it as your own.” It was not abusive, it didn’t have bad language and it is not in anyway a cyber bullying.

27

@ Architect - I think he equates my “Don’t be polite” as cyber bullying. Pretty thinned skinned! Actual cyber bullying (whatever that is) WOULD be deleted by this forum moderator.

@ egeorgiou - Architect is the most senior member of this forum, and carries the utmost in respect from all of us. Your responses serve only to dig your hole deeper. Your energy may be better spent restoring your academic credibility.

28

Whatever dude! You lost all your credit with me. I am done here.

29

So any idea of why the Author line the comments disappeared?

/* Devantech LCD03 driver
*
* Author : Christophe Gerbier, 2010
*
*/

Completely unrelated, I’m working on a new site … maybe the domain is too long:

http://www.DontStealOtherPeoplesCodeAndPresentAsOnesOwnOnlyToLaterAccuseOthersOfCyberBullyingWhenYouAreCaught.com

30

To change this subject, can you actually get a domain this long? What is the limit on the domain name length?

31

Not sure but looks like someone beat me to it:

From NetworkSolutions.com

[quote]
Sorry dontstealotherpeoplescodeandpresentasonesownonlytolateraccuseothersofcyberbullyingwhenyouarecaught.com is not available
Please search again for another domain name.[/quote]

32

[quote=“egeorgiou”]To resolve this I have removed the blog post and video from the public domain.

…

Regards,
Evangelos Georgiou
[/quote]

Thanks for doing this. It’s not for me to say, but I’d imagine if you put the original author’s name back in the code and in the article, that it would be ok to put back up.

33

@ Gus - got me wondering…

So i don’t get in trouble - nicked from Wikipedia and in no way my blurb… :slight_smile:

Each label may contain up to 63 characters. The full domain name may not exceed a total length of 253 characters in its external dotted-label specification.[8] In the internal binary representation of the DNS the maximum length requires 255 octets of storage.[1] In practice, some domain registries may have shorter limits

34

Thanks for doing this. It’s not for me to say, but I’d imagine if you put the original author’s name back in the code and in the article, that it would be ok to put back up.
[/quote]

That’s what I’ve proposed but he doesn’t seem to accept this proposition.

So, let’s close this topic and hope Evangelos Georgiou will have understood the main goal of this thread : please credit original author(s) if you borrow their work. It doesn’t cost much, even to one’s own pride, and can avoid many conflicts.

1 Like
35

Hello Everyone, specifically Bec! I have been contacted by Evangelos Georgiou requesting the deletion of this thread and I said we would only do so if you guys are okay with this.

We know he made a mistake, and from what he said he feels sorry, but the punishment for this mistake may get out of hand if we do not help him out.

Whether he learned something or not, I want to get your permission to delete the new threads to help him out. I will even delete this very post.

If you accept then +1 this post. I need few +1 and a specific reply from Bec please. Let us move on and enjoy FEZing!

===================

Edit: I completely forgot that the new forum lets you delete your own posts. So it is up to you guys, including Evangelos Georgiou, to delete or not.

4 Likes
36

Biff it and get the Fung Shui back on track :slight_smile:

37

How so?

38

I don’t think this is right to delete this thread.

39

I updated my last post with this text

“I completely forgot that the new forum lets you delete your own posts. So it is up to you guys, including Evangelos Georgiou, to delete or not.”

40

The power of google, anyone searching for his name will find this thread… And that might be trouble for him, being an academic and all…
I forgive him… Hopefully he’ll contribute back to the community in the near future…