Re: Letter to Community

As a side note on this: The brazilian PHP-GTK page seems alive and well.. http://www.php-gtk.org.br/ It translates badly in google or babelfish but it seems to be often updated and code is code if people need examples. -joeldg On Tue, 20 Jul 2004 07:54:45 +0100, Steph <steph@zend.com> wrote: > 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 > > > > -- > PHP-GTK General Mailing List (http://gtk.php.net/) > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php > >