Do you tend to write your own name or your company name in your code?
- by Connell Watkins
I've been working on various projects at home and at work, and over the years I've developed two main APIs that I use in almost all AJAX based websites. I've compiled both of these into DLLs and called the namespaces Connell.Database and Connell.Json.
My boss recently saw these namespaces in a software documentation for a project for the company and said I shouldn't be using my own name in the code. (But it's my code!)
One thing to bear in mind is that we're not a software company. We're an IT support company, and I'm the only full-time software developer here, so there's not really any procedures on how we should write software in the company.
Another thing to bear in mind is that I do intend on one day releasing these DLLs as open-source projects.
How do other developers group their namespaces within their company? Does anyone use the same class libraries in personal and in work projects?
Also does this work the other way round? If I write a class library entirely at work, who owns that code? If I've seen the library through from start to finish, designed it and programmed it. Can I use that for another project at home?
Thanks,
Update
I've spoken to my boss about this issue and he agrees that they're my objects and he's fine for me to open-source them. Before this conversation I started changing the objects anyway, which was actually quite productive and the code now suits this specific project more-so than it did previously.
But thank you to everyone involved for a very interesting debate. I hope all this text isn't wasted and someone learns from it. I certainly did.
Cheers,
