Re: random observations on online PHP manual

On Mon, 22 Mar 2010, Richard Quadling wrote: > On 21 March 2010 14:15, Robert P. J. Day <rpjday@crashcourse.ca> wrote: > >  i wasn't suggesting reproducing the entire command-line section. > >  i was more thinking along the lines of something early in the > > installation section, maybe a very first section, "how can you > > tell if you have PHP installed already?"  if people are truly > > beginners, they may not even *know* if PHP is on their system.  so > > a simple sequence of commands they can run, with a rationale for > > them, such as: > > > >  $ type php            # is it here and where is it? > >  $ php -v              # what version is it? > >  $ php -m              # what modules are loaded? > >  $ php -h              # get general help > > > > not only would this get a new reader at least typing a few > > commands, but you can recommend that if they *do* need to install, > > they can re-use this list as a sanity check to verify the install > > went well. you might also mention that when they eventually ask > > for help, people will ask them these very questions, "what version > > are you running? what modules are loaded?" > > For windows, the "type php" isn't the same command. > > Windows "type" is similar to "cat". > > Assuming that PHP _is_ in the path, then, at the command line ... > > FOR %A IN (PHP.EXE) DO @ECHO %~$PATH:A > > will produce output of ... > > C:\PHP5\php.exe i'm aware it wouldn't work the same way under windows, i was just trying to propose a simple sanity test someone could run to verify that PHP seemed to be installed and working properly. naturally, you can tweak that text accordingly. and regarding installation, i would *strongly* encourage readers to install from packages if they can, leaving downloading and building the source as a last resort only. virtually every OS these days should have PHP and related packages ready to go. rday -- ======================================================================== Robert P. J. Day Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA Linux Consulting, Training and Kernel Pedantry. Web page: http://crashcourse.ca Twitter: http://twitter.com/rpjday ========================================================================