COPYRIGHT



After this file is loaded, files will "automatically" insert a
copyright notice near the front of files (i.e. right after the
FILECREATED expression) specifying the years it was edited and the
"owner".  The format of the copyright notice is:

(*                        Copyright (c) 1981
                                  by
                         Foo Bars Corporation                       *)

"Automatically" means that once a file has a copyright notice then
every version will have a new copyright notice inserted into the file
without user intervention.  (The copyright information necessary to
keep the copyright up to date is stored at the end of the file.)  If a
file has no copyright information associated with it (i.e. it is
either a new file or an "old" file of which no copyright question has
every been asked), then the user will be asked if he wants it
copyrighted.  If the answer is YES then the user will also be asked
who the owner of the file should be.  If the answer is NO, then that
information is retained and the user will never be asked again.  The
ownership question uses ASKUSER and the keys used in ASKUSER are
generated using the variable COPYRIGHTOWNERS.  COPYRIGHTOWNERS is a
list of entries of the form

	(KEY OWNERSTRING) 

where KEY is used as a response to ASKUSER and OWNERSTRING is a string
which is the full identification of the owner.  Even if
COPYRIGHTOWNERS is NIL, there are always two response the user can
make: (1) specify an OWNERSTRING which is different than any elements
on COPYRIGHTOWNERS or (2) specify that the user really does not want a
copyright notice.

For example, if COPYRIGHTOWNERS has the value

	((BBN "Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc.")
	 (XEROX "Xerox Corporation"))

Then for a new file FOO the following interaction will take place:

	Do you want to Copyright FOO? Yes
        Copyright owner: {user typed ?}
	one of:
	BBN - Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc.
	XEROX - Xerox Corporation
	[ - new copyright owner -- type one line of text
	] - no copyright notice -- I changed my mind

	Copyright owner: BBN

Then "Foo Bars Corporation" in the above copyright notice example
would have been "Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc."

Any year the file has been edited is considered a "copyright year" and
therefore kept with the copyright information.  For example, if a file
has been edited in 1981, 1982, and 1984, then the copyright notice
would look like:

(*                   Copyright (c) 1981,1982,1984
                                  by
                           Martin D. Yonke                          *)



                 User Control of the Copyright Notice

Since all of this happens automatically (except the initial user
interaction), there are a couple of ways for the user to control the
process.

The variable COPYRIGHTFLG can have several values -- NO means do not
even ask the user if he wants a copyright notice (i.e. as if the
COPYRIGHT package had never been loaded); ASK means ask the user on
each new file; and YES means the user always wants a copyright notice
and just ask who the copyright owner of this file should be.  The
default for COPYRIGHTFLG is ASK.

For a file which has a copyright notice that the user wants to get
rid of in all following versions of the file he can use the function

	(REMOVECOPYRIGHT FILE) 

where FILE specifies the file to get rid of the copyright notice.  The
user will not be asked again about any copyright information for FILE.

To remove all current copyright information about a file, call

	(UNDOCOPYRIGHT FILE)

The next time the file is made, the user will be asked about a
copyright notice for FILE unless COPYRIGHTFLG is NO.


NOTE: Either the source or compiled version of the file has to be
loaded before a call to REMOVECOPYRIGHT or UNDOCOPYRIGHT otherwise an
error is generated.  The file should be remade afterwards.

Questions and comments to Martin Yonke (Yonke@BBND)