Re: [PHP-DOC] Fw: New part in manual? From: Hartmut Holzgraefe (hartmut <email protected>)
Date: 07/04/00

Richard Lynch wrote:
>
> > 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'm confused what you want to split where...
>
> Certainly a newbie has even *less* idea of what's builtin versus optional
> (unless they compiled it for themself, increasingly less common) than they
> do that there's a whole lot of functions organized by what they do.

this is all about re-ordering instead of just splitting it
in two parts (IMHO)

there is a reason for builtin functions being built in or optional,
sometimes a function is optional because it depends on external stuff
not available everywhere (database access for example), other
extensions are extensions just because they are not as relevant for
general use as the builtins, see for example the calendar extensions

getting all the builtins together in one place in front is a first
step towards helping newbies getting the concept of what is important
basic functionality available everywhere and what is less general
optional stuff that might even be missing in some installations

experience from answering questions on the german mailin list shows
that a lot of users give up searching the manual before they reach
the strings section near the end of the function reference,
possibly either due to pure fustration about the pseudo-random
section mix or because they implicitly expect that stuff near the
end is less general and relates to esoteric extensions they are not
yet ready for 

--
Hartmut Holzgraefe         
  hartmut <email protected>     http://www.six.de    +49-711-99091-62 fax:-99