Re: Maintaining PHP 5 documentation

We could think about building docs for a certain tag/revision or branching of a PHP5 (as well as a PHP7?) release branch for the docs as well. And then build the docs from those branches. Cheers Andreas 04.12.2020 20:46:55 Anna Filina <me@afilina.com>: > Thanks for such a detailed answer! > > Would it make sense for someone to maintain a completely separate manual specifically for those > retired docs? > > Advantages: > - The rest of the team could maintain only docs for the current versions. > - The legacy docs would still be online, searchable and linkable. > > I can find the resources necessary to make this work. > > Anna > > On Fri, Dec 4, 2020 at 2:24 PM G. P. B. <george.banyard@gmail.com> wrote: >> On Fri, 4 Dec 2020 at 19:01, Anna Filina <me@afilina.com> wrote: >>> Hi team, >>> >>> I landed on this plain 404 page >>> yesterday: https://www.php.net/manual/en/ini.sect.safe-mode.php#ini.safe-mode   >>> >>> I was told that the PHP 5 docs are in the process of being removed >>> from php.net[http://php.net/]. This is not ideal for me as I maintain and migrate legacy >>> applications for a living. >>> >>> I would like to understand the reasoning behind this decision and perhaps offer some >>> help to remedy the situation: >>> - Are there any inherent problems with keeping the legacy docs online? >> >> We don't have multiple copies of the docs so everything lives on one page. >> There is an archive of the PHP Documentation before we started removing mentions of it. >> Akin to how the PHP 4 docs are handled. >> >>   >>> - How much effort does it require to maintain the legacy docs? >> >> Because everything is on one page, maintaining accurate docs for the range PHP 5 - 8 >> is rather impractical, many things changed, functions got removed, functions had drastic >> behavioural changes, etc. >>   >>> - Are there any associated costs? >> >> The human cost of needing to maintain such a large range of versions and to maintain >> and clarify docs which are only relevant to PHP 5 when we could spend our time on >> more productive things. >> Secondly removing docs alleviates the burden on translations. >>   >>> Thanks, >>> Anna Filina >>> https://twitter.com/afilina (DMs are open) >> >> Hope this clarifies some of it. >> >> Best regards, >> >> George P. Banyard