Recommendation is to avoid using the year nomenclature as this
information is already encoded in the git repo. Avoids needing to
repeatly update.
Also updates AUTHORS.txt from current repo with contributor names
This API doesn't transfer ownership, so no smart pointers are required --
this just needlessly tightens requirements on the user of the interface.
(Fixes five instances of MSVC C26410 warning)
Seth Hillbrand
Jeff Young
Simon Richter
Maciej Suminski