RE: [PHP-GTK] what is going on with gtk.php.net?

> > Is anyone on this list secretly a brilliant web person? :) > > Oh, that would be me. I've done lots of brilliant web stuff. :) > But I'm not committed to the plan. I'm really only here at the moment > as a multi-lingual developer who has a PHP-GTK application in the wild. > I've not been motivated to help solve the documentation problem. I've > kept up with the thread, but I've fundamental issues with the whole > documentation idea: > > a) the GTK+ documentation is very good, and that is *mainly* all that is > needed, along with a bit of glue documentation that explains *how* to > translate GTK+ concepts into PHP-GTK concepts. If the GTK+ > documentation is insufficient, then *it* should be improved before > improving PHP-GTK documentation. GTK+ documentation is split into 1.2.* documentation (incomplete and only kept online for historical reasons) and 2.* documentation (pretty good). The other alternative's the way PHP documentation is handled across PHP 3, 4 and 5, i.e. as one set of documentation with versioning information throughout. > b) documentation always lags code, because there's little benefit to > creating documentation, compared to the benefit of creating code, and by > far I'd rather have code that is undocumented than no code at all. I > can use the former, but not the latter. Agreed! > c) documentation and code together are redundant, we have the sources, > so when there's anything strange about how PHP-GTK works, I just lift > the hood and start poking around. Sometimes my poking leads me into > GTK+ code as well. (Yes, I know; many of you don't poke into C code). James: the problem is that _most_ PHP coders - not just PHP-GTK coders - wouldn't know where to start looking into C code. That even goes for some of the php.net docs and PEAR guys. Because GTK 1.2.* is itself largely undocumented, linking to that manual isn't an option. That makes documenting PHP-GTK 1 a full-on research job. Now we can either say 'please learn C before you apply to help out here' (oh and XML, and XSL, and CVS, and all about makefiles), or we can say 'experience with PHP-GTK is enough' and not worry about the fact that bugs don't get picked up in this way, or are wrongly assigned (e.g. to PHP-GTK rather than to GTK+ itself, as has happened on many occasions). Even switching to the latter approach, the whole XML/XSL and CVS learning curve is still enough to put a barrier in the way for the majority of those who would otherwise consider helping out. This is the rationale behind having user notes in the manual, and behind the existence of the Wiki. - Steph