Doc #73698 [NEW]: It's hard to find standard PHP library functions in Function Reference

From: sobak Operating system: PHP version: Irrelevant Package: Documentation problem Bug Type: Documentation Problem Bug description:It's hard to find standard PHP library functions in Function Reference Description: ------------ Hi, I started a non-biding discussion on /r/php regarding ways we could improve PHP Manual experience. One of complaints (which I also heard before) is that it's hard to find PHP standard library functions. https://www.reddit.com/r/PHP/comments/5h7c5w/how_can_be_the_php_manual_improved/daz2jj8/ I think that I know the reasoning behind that. Moreover, I think is valid. There is hard to define what exactly "PHP Standard Library" is (I'm talking about SPL). One version of PHP can have php-src/ext/calendar/ bundled and other can not. Extensions can also be excluded when compiling etc, etc. But let's focus on php-src/ext/standard for now. Those are basic functions which are always available, but finding them in the manual using TOC's is rather difficult. Let's take file_exists() as an example - pretty basic function. php.net/manual/en/ (or even PHP.net -> Documentation -> English) -> Function Reference -> File System Related Extensions -> Filesystem -> Filesystem Functions -> file_exists() Not only it's very long way to get there, I think that most of these people is lost on "File System Related Extensions". I doubt they treat file_extists() as any kind of an extension (once again, I do understand, why we treat it as such in terms of manual structure). So, what I would propose is either: 1) Restructure phpdoc/reference/ to contain /standard/ directory, then divided into /strings/, /array/, /filesystem/ etc. (what exactly should be included there is another part of discussion, I think). That sounds good, but I'm not even sure whether our current build system would allow that. It's all about xml:id's and their hierarchy, what defines our TOC's, right? 2) Don't change the hierarchy and structure at all but somehow hardcode URL's to them on top of "Function Reference". Something like: Function Reference - Standard library -- Arrays -- Filesystem -- Strings - Affecting PHP's Behaviour - Audio Formats Manipulation - Authentication Services [...] I'm willing to take care of implementing that, but I'd like to know opinions of more experienced Doc Team's members. -- Edit bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=73698&edit=1 -- Try a snapshot (PHP 5.4): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=73698&r=trysnapshot54 Try a snapshot (PHP 5.5): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=73698&r=trysnapshot55 Try a snapshot (trunk): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=73698&r=trysnapshottrunk Fixed in SVN: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=73698&r=fixed Fixed in release: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=73698&r=alreadyfixed Need backtrace: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=73698&r=needtrace Need Reproduce Script: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=73698&r=needscript Try newer version: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=73698&r=oldversion Not developer issue: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=73698&r=support Expected behavior: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=73698&r=notwrong Not enough info: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=73698&r=notenoughinfo Submitted twice: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=73698&r=submittedtwice register_globals: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=73698&r=globals PHP 4 support discontinued: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=73698&r=php4 Daylight Savings: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=73698&r=dst IIS Stability: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=73698&r=isapi Install GNU Sed: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=73698&r=gnused Floating point limitations: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=73698&r=float No Zend Extensions: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=73698&r=nozend MySQL Configuration Error: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=73698&r=mysqlcfg