Re: RFC: Self-Hosted PHP Documentation

In general: a good draft! :-) But: It doesn't really solve the doc problem. Q: "Why I need a full-text search?" A: "To find the information you need." Q: "In the most case, i need the parameters of a specific function, or finding a function with expects ie. a string with a file name and returns the file content as array. Can i do this comfortable with the full-text search?" A: "No, a full-text search doesn't know what "function name" mean, or if the term "file name" refers to a parameter description or a general function description." Q: "Isn't this documented in the Manual?" A: "In the docbook source, function names and parameters are marked with specific tags, it is documented" Q: "So whats the problem? The information exists to answer my request." A: "This information is lost after transforming the docbook to HTML, PDF etc." Q: "Why must the docbook be transformed?" A: "There are no native Docbook readers, so we must do the transformations to a viewable format like HTML or PDF." Q: "Why is there no reader?" A: "Well, ähm, yes..." Thats the point! IMO instead of writing tons of code and wasting time with project specific solutions for the "rendering docbook?"-problem, it is time to start writing a native Docbook-Writer/Reader. With a DB-W/R: 1.) we doesn't need to build the manual 2.) such an application knows the meaning of tags, rendering a file containing a <refsect> as root tag is possible; a user havn't to fetch the whole manual, only the required files for a specific Package/Extension. 3.) tons of client-side possibilties for search functions and navigation based on the logical structure of the document 4.) writing docs is like writing in OpenOffice or Word For PHP-Manual specific stuff like showing functions only if there are in the installed PHP-build or highlighted sources such an application could have book-specific Filters or Hooks.