eth.getBlock() returns author which is same as miner + difference between geth output vs parity

[gituser]

getBlocks from parity give additional field author which is equal miner field, what's the point of having it, maybe it's redundant it should be removed?

here is an example from Parity v1.3.1

> web3.eth.getBlock(1701979);
{
  author: "0x2a65aca4d5fc5b5c859090a6c34d164135398226",
  difficulty: 49841077365596,
  extraData: "0x4477617266506f6f6c",
  gasLimit: 4712388,
  gasUsed: 210000,
  hash: "0x6f16dc80ef466c8b2b082a662a744376eecd213e3b70198ae5e8d4ff12b0f6cb",
  logsBloom: "0x00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000",
  miner: "0x2a65aca4d5fc5b5c859090a6c34d164135398226",
  number: 1701979,
  parentHash: "0x2bb558ca9b5c2abf6106b9871f9ae949e31038b5141825a82fae38e60cc2bed2",
  receiptsRoot: "0xe969268e2feb3bb11a3c5970b30ae4754846e2fdc5f9c82a891bcf6d2b82d342",
  sealFields: ["0x9a2c92fbd17b2622d9871018c361fa2e6ca1dedf2265b238cfdb3a34fceef55e", "0x79435c31c834545d"],
  sha3Uncles: "0x87d19a9d7a285402b57c6af1b3effe14ccd2de78a7f7f15cf4e4e4d7ca1926aa",
  size: 2204,
  stateRoot: "0x3d275995c27b3f5a4833336a182f466e2ad9c2ff5326220a9692cfed191252eb",
  timestamp: 1465898193,
  totalDifficulty: 27419632628096444269,
  transactions: ["0x064f74ac7f5c63df95d102b41b3af48d8edb7f32e627474c1beaa7c5e0a70a5a", "0xff098518a828d493b1423894392e0448a27bc1be815ac12d4df69656ebf135ab", "0xf72d4c80e18f50586a2b74e4e4cc07762d2360e0f5e92621d0419abf9828f650", "0x313b9a7fdee24f61aa5f790041f9a43573b8b52fb1b08e3538b9a3edbd1a86f1", "0xc98a77e0e54748892e0e8fe176ab3c9b477c87b33f585d6973af42284510b557", "0x719d87de0b4ae1d2dae178769b0b0326901c12e7d1417fcc744a2cab48cde3b3", "0x53b701be7e64d4904e830d4dbdd1da50a79b0dde1456dc3ac7da0eaa2bce9414", "0xa2dbe94dce82238d26efbd7cc51221309a86869f4196cab45bb5f74064d2ccec", "0x280a4dd930efee05d98eb946fb3c9b680c0d76b28cd364c9748f009a4d4b9dd8", "0x8cb0c71bf7e89427c77def3a14699bfcd233c9842d77eebeca8ad782083c6830"],
  transactionsRoot: "0x8c57c6c446be70426d7f1c72d2216004a94d6623812cb5c87f107750cb29f0f5",
  uncles: ["0x43a2171e14991d5feacd5be715f7497011fab39b56425445e0ed4a7ce0a22c93"]
}

also if you compare output from geth vs parity from getBlock, you'll notice few differences:

--- parity_getBlock 2016-09-29 11:52:35.165106137 +0300
+++ geth_getBlock   2016-09-29 11:52:55.349119227 +0300
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 {
-  author: "0x2a65aca4d5fc5b5c859090a6c34d164135398226",
   difficulty: 49841077365596,
   extraData: "0x4477617266506f6f6c",
   gasLimit: 4712388,
@@ -7,10 +6,10 @@
   hash: "0x6f16dc80ef466c8b2b082a662a744376eecd213e3b70198ae5e8d4ff12b0f6cb",
   logsBloom: "0x00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000",
   miner: "0x2a65aca4d5fc5b5c859090a6c34d164135398226",
+  nonce: "0x79435c31c834545d",
   number: 1701979,
   parentHash: "0x2bb558ca9b5c2abf6106b9871f9ae949e31038b5141825a82fae38e60cc2bed2",
-  receiptsRoot: "0xe969268e2feb3bb11a3c5970b30ae4754846e2fdc5f9c82a891bcf6d2b82d342",
-  sealFields: ["0x9a2c92fbd17b2622d9871018c361fa2e6ca1dedf2265b238cfdb3a34fceef55e", "0x79435c31c834545d"],
+  receiptRoot: "0xe969268e2feb3bb11a3c5970b30ae4754846e2fdc5f9c82a891bcf6d2b82d342",
   sha3Uncles: "0x87d19a9d7a285402b57c6af1b3effe14ccd2de78a7f7f15cf4e4e4d7ca1926aa",
   size: 2204,
   stateRoot: "0x3d275995c27b3f5a4833336a182f466e2ad9c2ff5326220a9692cfed191252eb",

(or view here http://pastebin.com/Zad3na9k)

I understand sealFields is a new propose from parity (ethereum/EIPs#95).

But what about difference between receiptRoot and receiptsRoot? Is there any way to make the same naming to avoid confusion and breaking external scripts?

Thanks

[tjayrush]

+1. We really do need consistent output from all clients.

[tomusdrw]

The spec says that the field name should be receiptsRoot: https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/JSON-RPC#eth_getblockbyhash
and this is what Parity is returning (so I guess it should rather be a bug filed in Geth's repo).

Miner field's name is specific to PoW, since we are supporting other consensus mechanism we've decided to include more generic name author also (similar thing with nonce and sealFields). So miner is most probably left for backward compatibility.

[gituser]

I guess this can be closed then.