RE: [PHP-GTK] Letter to Community

wb Andrei! erm - thanks for all the (mostly undeserved) honours - <big snip 1 /> > So, what's to be done? Clearly, the documentation is lacking. > Obviously, it > is an enormous effort to document all the classes and methods that PHP-GTK > inherits from GTK+ in addition to its own idiosyncrasies. Simply linking > back to GTK+ manual is not a solution as that manual itself is quite > incomplete. So, what seems to me to be a good approach is to invest some > time and effort into either fixing the current documentation system and > continuing the course or rebuilding it to use Livedocs. Whatever we do, we > should probably be compatible with the PHP documentation project to > facilitate reuse of tools and technologies. OK, I just want to butt in over this and explain that 'fixing the current documentation system and continuing the course' is NOT incompatible with 'rebuilding it to use Livedocs'. We can do both, and I'll be happy to take responsibility for that shift when there's a model in place that we can work to. In the meantime, Christian's already fixed the existing build and is forging ahead. We need to negotiate a regular docs build on the server now, there are no cron jobs on php.net for this at present. <big snip 2 /> > This may sound familiar, but I think that my personal strength lies in > developing code, rather than designing web sites or writing documentation. > So far I have been waiting for PHP 5/Zend Engine 2 API to > stabilize, and now > that PHP 5 has been released, I believe I can re-start work on PHP-GTK > 2. However, it is not going to be a straightforward port of PHP-GTK 1 > because Zend Engine 2 offers much better ways to exploit the power of > object orientation and we can build a very slick interface to GTK+ if we > start from scratch. So you're thinking of dropping backward compatability? Can you please clarify that here, yea or nay? And also whether you mean only in the PHP sense or in the GTK sense (e.g. will GtkText still be around in PHP-GTK 2?) I am going to start thinking about it and posting RFCs > on the mailing list in hopes of soliciting feedback from users as to how > this interface can be best structured. Consider the connect() and > connect_object() functions (a source of much confusion > apparently): There is > no reason that the second one needs to be called connect_object() > aside from > the fact that that is what GTK+ uses. So, one of the first questions will > be, do we stick to GTK+ API rigidly or do we replace/rename some > methods to > suit us better? 2p from me: stick to GTK+ API unless it makes absolutely no sense to do so. connect_object() is much more useful than it seems at first glance. On the other hand, the bits that replace GtkText and GtkList look terrifying to me. It might be worth making some kind of PHP-specific uberclass that pulls those new classes together.. if ZE 2 allows that option. > As far as project structure goes, perhaps we could have 3 loosely > organized > teams: development, website, and docs, each one headed by an informal > leader. I nominate Steph for the docs team which will probably > leader to her > kicking my virtual butt. :-) Consider it done (the virtual butt kicking part i mean). Development's obviously you, you lead the project anyway. Website is the missing element. It's a bit ironic that the PHP desktop community can't seem to come up with a decent webbie between us :I I think the sanest course would be for me to hold 'docs lead' until I know it's going to be okay if I don't. So far the signs that this might be a short-term mission are very good, thanks to Christian :) The only thing I'm really concerned about overseeing now is the move to livedocs, when that becomes possible. It wouldn't be fair to leave that for someone else to deal with; I know both the projects pretty well, and I know php-gtk-doc's structural issues inside out. I'm actually gagging to be involved in the development side, once you (and presumably Alan and Frank) have set up the structural side of it. Hence my total empathy with everything James Cameron said on this list earlier. (Be warned, all. This is what happens when you start out learning PHP!) - Steph