Re: [PHP-DOC] Fw: New part in manual? From: Stefan Livieratos (stefan <email protected>)
Date: 07/03/00

----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Robinson <mgrphp3 <email protected>>
To: Stefan Livieratos <stefan <email protected>>
Cc: <phpdoc <email protected>>
Sent: Monday, July 03, 2000 7:28 PM
Subject: RE: [PHP-DOC] Fw: New part in manual?

>
> >
> > Well, I suppose you have been working with the manual for
> > some time, haven't you? I think that newbies get confused when
> > they have to browse through the long function reference list
> > which mostly consists of extension descriptions. Don't you think
> > that splitting the function reference would be more straight forward?
>
> I don't think so, no. There's only 62 subheadings...
... at this time. But please keep in mind that new extensions
get added all of the time.

> As a curiosity, I asked my wife, who knows how to collect her
> own email but thats about it, to go to 'the manual' and bring me
> up a list of functions I could use to connect to mysql and to send
> email.
>
> She had them both up in a couple of seconds.

Well, you picked the easy ones out, didn't you ;)

> Considering the use of php supposes one has at least a tad more
> experience with programming and 'rtfm'-ing than my better half, I
> think the layout of the manual is fine, and burying functions under
> another layer of nav would serve no purpose other than to add a couple
> of thousand 'what happen to the manual' bug reports.

I am sorry but I can not see how my suggestion is burying functions in
any way. I think it would help people understanding the modular design
of PHP4 and finding function references quicker.

Regards,
Stefan