a questions of coding etiquette (& copyright?)

[bazmonaut]

Hi again

What's the etiquette when modifying someone else's code, in terms of acknowledging the original author etc?

I see that TRO has modified other author's work (and acknolwldeged this in the header), if I mod one of TRO's works would it be polite to include a link to his website in the header?

Also (if I have a reasonable understanding of copyright), provided I acknowledge the original author, and don't try to make money out of it, I can just go ahead and publish modified code? Right?

What if someone was selling code, and I started giving away a modified version for free? I guess this would be impolite at best... I know that TRO asks people not to publish his code on other forums...

I'm new to mql4 coding but I am an experienced amateur (self-taught) VBA coder, the structures of mql4 & VBA are quite similar (maybe this is the case for all programming languages). I think I have some useful contributions to make, but I don't want to start pissing everyone off.

Excuse the repeated references to politeness, it's my English half coming out.

bazmo

[TheRumpledOne]

You should always acknowledge the original author. One way is to include the link where you found the code in your post and in the code itself.

If someone posts the source code, the implication is that you can use it, modify it, etc...

If they do NOT want you using it, modifying it, etc... they do NOT post the source code.

The reason I ask people not to post my code elsewhere is because I may update or fix the indicator in the future and people who get it elsewhere will not know where to look for updates/fixes.

The reason I post the source code is so others can learn how I do things and build on it.

If someone is selling code then even if you modify it, you are in violation if you post a modified version.

If you receive code from someone, whether or not you exchanged money for it, and they ask you not to post it, then posting it would be a violation.

The rule of thumb is to think about INTENT.

If you modify my code then I ask you to remove TRO from the name because I don't want credit nor blame. But leave my comments in the code.

[bazmonaut]

Thanks TRO, all common sense and courtesy I guess.

Having loads of fun at the moment digging through the indicator code and trying to understand the strategy underneath.

Very much looking forward to getting hold of the multimeters in the donational indicators.

Cheese