Commit: 836725ee4d0c8589140922a8f05a0a9a2089ea4e
Author: krakjoe <[email protected]> Tue, 17 Sep 2013 22:37:01
+0100
Parents: 8ab08254bcd361f1e439ee1b130fc08c4b89b946
Branches: master
Link:
http://git.php.net/?p=web/php.git;a=commitdiff;h=836725ee4d0c8589140922a8f05a0a9a2089ea4e
Log:
changes to get-involved and introduce build-setup
Changed paths:
A build-setup.php
M get-involved.php
diff --git a/build-setup.php b/build-setup.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..790beb7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build-setup.php
@@ -0,0 +1,167 @@
+<?php
+// $Id$
+$_SERVER['BASE_PAGE'] = 'get-involved.php';
+include_once $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/include/prepend.inc';
+
+$SIDEBAR_DATA ='
+ <p>
+ This page is intended to help setup a development environment for PHP,
if mistakes are found
+ please <a href="http://bugs.php.net";>report</a> them.
+ </p>
+';
+
+site_header("Get Involved", array("current" => "community"));
+
+?>
+<h2>Operating System Preparation</h2>
+<p>
+ Improving PHP requires a working build environment to test changes, the
following section deals with setting up a working build environment.
+</p>
+<p>
+ Your build environment should have an appropriate toolchain that includes
a working C compiler,
+ for those not working in Microsoft Windows, you will need a working,
compatible autotools installation, and at the very least a shared copy of zlib.
+</p>
+<p>
+ For most *nix like operating systems, some external dependencies may be
required to bring a build to completion;
+ if a build fails because of missing headers or libraries, issuing a
variant of the following command should resolve those dependencies, allowing
the build to continue:
+ <ul>
+ <li>[sudo] yum|apt-get|ports install package[-dev[el]]</li>
+ </ul>
+</p>
+<p>
+ For those working in <i>Ubuntu Linux</i>, you can run the following
command to automate the installation of dependencies:
+ <ul>
+ <li>sudo apt-get build-dep php5</li>
+ </ul>
+ If the compilation of <i>an extension</i> should fail because of missing
dependencies, <i>Ubuntu Linux</i> can attempt to automate the resolution of
those dependencies by issuing:
+ <ul>
+ <li>sudo apt-get build-dep php5-<i>extname</i></li>
+ </ul>
+</p>
+<p>
+ The following table shows what is required for Microsoft Windows users to
build PHP:
+<p/>
+<table>
+<tr>
+ <th>PHP</th>
+ <th>Visual C++</th>
+ <th>MS SDK</th>
+ <th>DEPS</th>
+ <th>PHP SDK</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align="center">5.3</td>
+ <td align="center">Visual Studio 2008</td>
+ <td align="center">6.1</td>
+ <td align="center"><a
href="http://windows.php.net/downloads/php-sdk/deps-5.3-vc9-x86.7z";>x86</a></td>
+ <td align="center"><a
href="http://windows.php.net/downloads/php-sdk/php-sdk-binary-tools-20110512.zip";>here</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align="center">5.4</td>
+ <td align="center">Visual Studio 2008</td>
+ <td align="center">6.1</td>
+ <td align="center"><a
href="http://windows.php.net/downloads/php-sdk/deps-5.4-vc9-x86.7z";>x86</a></td>
+ <td align="center"><a
href="http://windows.php.net/downloads/php-sdk/php-sdk-binary-tools-20110915.zip";>here</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align="center">5.5</td>
+ <td align="center">Visual Studio 2008</td>
+ <td align="center">6.1</td>
+ <td align="center"><a
href="http://windows.php.net/downloads/php-sdk/deps-5.5-vc9-x86.7z";>x86</a></td>
+ <td align="center"><a
href="http://windows.php.net/downloads/php-sdk/php-sdk-binary-tools-20110915.zip";>here</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align="center">5.5</td>
+ <td align="center">Visual Studio 2012</td>
+ <td align="center">N/A</td>
+ <td align="center">
+ <a
href="http://windows.php.net/downloads/php-sdk/deps-5.5-vc11-x86.7z";>x86</a>,
+ <a
href="http://windows.php.net/downloads/php-sdk/deps-5.5-vc11-x64.7z";>x64</a>
+ </td>
+ <td align="center"><a
href="http://windows.php.net/downloads/php-sdk/php-sdk-binary-tools-20110915.zip";>here</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<p><b>Note:</b> If a Windows SDK is required, it is advised to install
the SDK <i>before</i> Visual Studio.</p>
+
+<h2>Workspace Preparation</h2>
+<p>
+ Windows users should now download and unzip the PHP SDK to their workspace
and execute the following commands in an appropriate Visual Studio Console:
+</p>
+<p>
+ Visual Studio 2008:
+ <ul>
+ <li>setenv /xp /Release /x86</li>
+ </ul>
+ Visual Studio 2008 and 2012:
+ <ul>
+ <li>cd C:\path-to-workspace</li>
+ <li>bin\phpsdk_setvars.bat</li>
+ <li>bin\phpsdk_buildtree.bat phpdev</li>
+ </ul>
+ Windows should now change to the directory
C:\path-to-workspace\phpdev\<i>VCXX</i>\<i>XARCH</i>, and consider it the root
of the workspace for the current build.
+</p>
+<p>
+ The next step for everyone is to obtain the versioned PHP sources via git:
+ <ul>
+ <li>git clone -b BRANCH https://github.com/php/php-src .</li>
+ </ul>
+ BRANCH should be replaced with an appropriate branch name, for example
<i>PHP-5.5</i>.
+</p>
+<p>
+ At this point you have a working build environment and the vanilla sources
for your chosen branch of PHP, it is a good idea, before you change anything at
all, to create a new branch and switch to it, in preparation for your awesome
changes to come:
+ <ul>
+ <li>git checkout -b my-awesome-changes</li>
+ </ul>
+</p>
+<h2>Building Your Development PHP</h2>
+<p>
+ All operating systems now converge on (near as makes no difference) the
same solutions for the rest of the build process:
+ <ul>
+ <li>buildconf: generates the configure script for PHP</li>
+ <li>configure: configures the build of PHP and creates Makefile</li>
+ <li>make: builds PHP</li>
+ <li>make test: runs testsuite</li>
+ <li>make install: installs PHP</li>
+ </ul>
+</p>
+<p>
+ For Microsoft Windows operating systems, those commands looks like this:
+ <ul>
+ <li>buildconf</li>
+ <li>configure --with-prefix=C:\my-awesome-php</li>
+ <li>nmake</li>
+ <li>nmake test</li>
+ <li>nmake install</li>
+ </ul>
+</p>
+<p>
+ While for the rest of us, those commands look like this:
+ <ul>
+ <li>./buildconf</li>
+ <li>./configure --prefix=/opt/my-awesome-php</li>
+ <li>make</li>
+ <li>make test</li>
+ <li>make install</li>
+ </ul>
+</p>
+<p>
+ The <i>configure</i> script has the ability to customize almost every
aspect of PHP, to ellicit help at the console pass <i>--help</i>
+ as the only argument to <i>configure</i></p>
+<p>
+ When <i>configure</i> executes, it saves the options passed in to a
re-usable <i>config.nice</i> which executes <i>configure</i> when invoked.
+</p>
+<p>
+ Upon successful completion of a build, it is recommended to run the test
suite, this will help you to identify regression problems in your work,
+ running the test suite can take a while; go out for a run, or a burger.
+</p>
+<p>
+ It is also possible to run a set (directory) of tests in the following way:
+ <ul>
+ <li>[n]make test TESTS=sapi/cli</li>
+ </ul>
+</p>
+<?php
+site_footer(array('sidebar'=>$SIDEBAR_DATA));
+
+/* vim: set et ts=4 sw=4 ft=php: : */
+
diff --git a/get-involved.php b/get-involved.php
index 1de2e43..f89d0ac 100644
--- a/get-involved.php
+++ b/get-involved.php
@@ -16,543 +16,42 @@ $SIDEBAR_DATA ='
site_header("Get Involved", array("current" => "community"));
?>
-<h2>Improving PHP</h2>
+<h2>Contributing to PHP</h2>
<p>
- This particular article assumes you are running <i>Ubuntu Linux</i>.
+ Anybody who programs in PHP can be a contributing member of the community
that develops and deploys it;
+ the task of deploying PHP, documentation and associated websites is a
never ending one.
+ With every release, or release candidate comes a wave of work, which takes
a lot of organization and co-ordination.
</p>
<p>
- To get a working build environment you need to run the following command;
- <ul>
- <li>sudo apt-get build-dep php5</li>
- </ul>
-For any extension that requires 3rd party libraries you need to install those
libraries.
-The simplest way to accomplish that is to to use <em>apt-get</em> to install
the Ubuntu build dependencies for that particular extension. For example, if
you want to build PHP with <a href="/manual/intl">intl</a> support you have to
run;
- <ul>
- <li>sudo apt-get build-dep php5<em>-intl</em></li>
- </ul>
-to install the ext/intl dependencies.
-</p>
-<p>
-To actually build PHP with ext/intl support you need to configure PHP to
enable it, f.e.
- <ul>
- <li>./configure --enable-intl</li>
- </ul>
- The rule of thumb for configuring PHP is;<br />
- <ul>
- <li>If its a pure PHP functionality use
<em>--enable</em>extension-name<br />
- Example;
- <ul>
- <li>./configure --enable-soap</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>And for extensions wrapping external libraries use
<em>--with</em>-extension-name<br />
- Example;
- <ul>
- <li>./configure --with-pgsql</li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- </ul>
- But as you saw with ext/intl, rules are meant to be broken - so you
<em>should</em> check <i>./configure --help</i> first.<br />
- When PHP encounters unknown configure argument you will be notified in the
end, so you can modify your arguments and re-run ./configure before executing
<em>make</em>.
-</p>
-<p>
-PHP creates a script called <em>config.nice</em> after every successful
<em>./configure --some --arguments</em> so you don't have to remember all the
options you passed to ./configure every time you want to rebuild PHP, running
<em>./config.nice</em> will do that for you
-</p>
-
-<p>
-Once you have the build dependencies installed you'll need to checkout PHP
from Git, configure and build it;
-<ul>
- <li>git clone -b PHP-5.4 http://git.php.net/repository/php-src.git
php-5.4</li>
- <li>cd php-5.4</li>
- <li>./buildconf</li>
- <li>./configure (see the <a href="#config.nice">shell script helper
below)</a></li>
- <li>make all test</li>
-</ul>
-</p>
-
-<p>While `make all test` is running we recommend you go out for a run,
-it can take a while. When you come back, submit
-the test results, but then try to track down one of the failed tests and
-figure out why it failed. The tests are very simple. In the failed test
-summary at the end a failed test shows up as:<br />
-<em>CLI php -m [sapi/cli/tests/018.phpt]</em>
-<br />
-That's a short description of the test and the filename of the test itself.
-For a failed tests, we create some files in the test dir. Go to sapi/cli/tests
-and you will find these files:
-<ul>
- <li>018.phpt - the full test file</li>
- <li>018.php - the php code that was run for the test</li>
- <li>018.out - the actual output from the test</li>
- <li>018.exp - the output that we expected</li>
- <li>018.diff - the diff between the actual and expected</li>
-</ul>
-Once you have fixed something, you can re-run the tests for just that set of
-tests with:
-<ul>
- <li>make test TESTS=sapi/cli</li>
-</ul>
-</p>
-<p>
-To run more tests, run ./configure and enable as many extensions as possible.
-</p>
-<p id="config.nice">
-Here is the shell script I use on an Ubuntu box:
-<pre>
-#! /bin/sh
-'./configure' \
-'--with-apxs2=/usr/bin/apxs2' \
-'--with-curlwrappers' \
-'--with-gd' \
-'--with-jpeg-dir=/usr' \
-'--with-png-dir=/usr' \
-'--with-vpx-dir=/usr' \
-'--with-freetype-dir=/usr' \
-'--with-t1lib=/usr' \
-'--enable-gd-native-ttf' \
-'--enable-exif' \
-'--with-config-file-path=/etc/php5/apache2' \
-'--with-config-file-scan-dir=/etc/php5/apache2/conf.d' \
-'--with-mysql=/usr' \
-'--with-zlib' \
-'--with-zlib-dir=/usr' \
-'--with-gettext' \
-'--with-kerberos' \
-'--with-imap-ssl' \
-'--with-mcrypt=/usr/local' \
-'--with-iconv' \
-'--with-ldap=/usr' \
-'--enable-sockets' \
-'--with-openssl' \
-'--with-pspell' \
-'--with-pdo-mysql=/usr' \
-'--with-pdo-sqlite' \
-'--enable-soap' \
-'--enable-xmlreader' \
-'--with-xsl' \
-'--enable-ftp' \
-'--enable-cgi' \
-'--with-curl=/usr' \
-'--with-tidy' \
-'--with-xmlrpc' \
-'--enable-mbstring' \
-'--enable-sysvsem' \
-'--enable-sysvshm' \
-'--enable-shmop' \
-'--with-readline' \
-'--with-mysqli=/usr/bin/mysql_config' \
-'--prefix=/usr/local' \
-"$@"
-</pre>
-<p>
-There are also README.TESTING and README.TESTING2 text files in the root
-directory if you want to learn more about the testing mechanism.
-</p>
-
-
-<hr />
-
-<h2>Contributing</h2>
-<p>
- The PHP project is so much more than just the scripting language on which
it is
- focused. It is a vibrant community of developers scratching related
itches,
- hoping their work will benefit others. PHP.net hosts a set of projects
- focused around the "flagship product," the PHP language, surrounding it
- with sub-projects for documentation, website maintenance, adding extra
- functionality with extensions, and so on.
-</p>
-
-
-<p>
- The PHP community is without a doubt, in my opinion, one of the greatest
- communities in the world. It has a lot to offer besides good friends and a
fun
- working environment. It is a community where things can happen very fast,
with
- many people involved, contributing back "upstream" to PHP in various
- capacities, from user-contributed notes to the manual to new killer
language
- features. There is always room for new contributors though, and PHP.net
really
- needs your help so it can continue the success of past years. In this
article
- we will explore how the PHP.net project works and how you can contribute
to it.
+ With the introduction of release managers comes a smooth release process,
but still help is needed:
+ testing release candidates, finding and squishing bugs in tests,
documentation, and sources.
</p>
-
+<h3>Four Best Ways to Contribute</h3>
<p>
- There are a lot of ways in which you can contribute to and influence the
project;
- participating on mailing lists, filing bug reports, and adding helpful
notes
- to the manual are all examples of valuable contributions. You don't have to
- develop a new JIT compiler, or even know the first thing of
- developing a language for that matter, to be able to contribute back.
Whatever
- you fancy, I am sure you can find a challenging task on PHP.net to solve.
Or
- are you maybe just looking for some brain-dead task on which to spend time
-
- but still want to make a difference? We have several of those too!
+ <ol>
+ <li>Running test suites in <a href="http://qa.php.net/";>RC</a> and <a
href="http://php.net/releases";>release</a> distributions of PHP</li>
+ <li>Help finding and diagnosing failed tests <a
href="http://qa.php.net/write-test.php";>phpt documentation</a></li>
+ <li>Filing and resolving bug reports at <a
href="http://bugs.php.net";>bugs.php.net</a></li>
+ <li>Help maintain and or translate documentation files at <a
href="http://edit.php.net";>edit.php.net</a></li>
+ </ol>
</p>
-
-
+<h3>Development of the PHP source</h3>
<p>
- Before we go deeper into ways you can contribute and how to do so, let's
take
- a step back and look at who actually leads the development and how things
are
- done within PHP.net.
+ Someone hoping to become involved in the maintanence and development of
the source should be experienced in all of the areas mentioned above,
+ this creates a strong team; everyone knows how every other part of the
project works.
</p>
-
-
<p>
- One of things I love most about working with Open Source Software like PHP
is
- the freedom. If I have an itch, I scratch it! If I want to work on new
- features or document all the kinks and quirks of PHP, I can. We have the
- freedom to work on exactly the things we care about and want to do.
- There is no one person in charge or policing of the project, it is a
community
- effort. All decisions are made in the open after the contributors
- participating in the discussion reach "general consensus" on the topic or
- if
- all else fails - after a vote on the subject. As within any community,
there;
- are members that have earned karma and respect through contributions to the
- project, and their meaning and views usually carry more weight than a total
- stranger from whom no one has heard before. Karma, like trust, needs to be
- earned.
+ You will also need experience in C programming as PHP is written entirely
in C.
</p>
-
-
-<p>
- To gain karma you basically need to prove to the community that you aren't
- just a nut-job and show that you can be trusted to think not only about
today,
- but tomorrow as well. Being active on the developers' mailing lists,
- digging into bug reports, posting patches and unit tests, and generally
- trying to help out and contribute to the project are great ways to gain a
- lot of karma points very quickly.
-</p>
-
-
-<p>
- All of the PHP.net projects (from PEAR, to PECL, to websites and
- documentation, to the PHP language itself) have
- long-time members which could be considered the "leaders" of the respective
- projects by the community, but that really doesn't mean anything other than
- "if no one knows the answer, ask him." The "leader" isn't going to tell
you to
- do anything, other than maybe ask you to revert a bad commit, but anyone
can
- do that. It is totally up to you to decide whether or not to work on some
- things. In the end, the final say on the matter is up to the contributor
who
- is actually doing the work.
-</p>
-
-
<p>
- The PHP.net project has mailing lists for most aspects of the project where
- all important decisions are made. For example discussions and decisions
about
- the language happen on the [email protected] mailing list
- ([email protected] for Windows-specific things such as packaging,
- porting features not available yet on Windows, et cetera). All discussions
- are open to whomever wants to participate. All you need to do is to sign
up
- to the mailing list and follow the discussions - and chime in if you have
- something to add. Please take a few moments to familiarize yourself with
the
- mailing list "rules" before you go all crazy on the lists. For the rules
that
- are generally followed on all PHP mailing lists, please see the
- <a href="http://php.net/reST/README.MAILINGLIST_RULES";>Mailinglist
Rules</a>.
-</p>
-
-
-<p>
- Although most of the PHP internals contributors make their living writing
PHP
- applications, feedback from other users is crucial to the development of
the
- language; your voice does matter. Keep in mind, however, that flaming
- and/or talking down to the developers that spend most of their free time
- working on the project may not exactly be the best approach to get your
point
- across. Take a look at the <a href="http://php.net/mailinglists";>Mailing
Lists</a> for the most
- popular mailing lists and see if any of them interest you, then sign up!
-</p>
-
-
-<p>
- Even though most of the mailing lists are very active, not everything that
is
- contributed to PHP needs to be approved there first. For example, minor
- features are often simply committed directly to Git without asking or
telling
- anyone. These are typically things for which a developer working on an
- external application saw a need and decided to add, in case anyone else
might
- need it in the future. PHP has a great peer review process so it's very
hard
- to "sneak" things in. Every commit to Git is reviewed by quite a lot of
people
- who are interested in what is going on - or who simply enjoy reading code.
If
- a reviewer discovers issues with the commit, he or she will send a quick
reply
- to the commit email and discuss it on the developers list. Often the peer
review
- results in extending the new feature and/or fixing unexpected behaviour,
but
- it can also result in removal of the feature as a whole if the community
- doesn't see any need for it.
-</p>
-
-
-<p>
- To help streamline part of the decision process and keep track of ideas,
- proposals, and TODO lists, PHP has a wiki located at
- <a href="http://wiki.php.net";>wiki.php.net</a>. This has proven to be a
valuable resource when
- developing new features, creating RFCs, and getting approval for things
- before wasting time on a rejected feature. Discussions on controversial
- features pop up on the mailing lists regularly, but with the help of the
- wiki people can easily browse through previous discussions and see the
- reasons for rejection. The wiki contains a lot of great information and is
- definitely worth browsing for all those interested in the overall PHP.net
- project. It not only covers RFCs, but also has a lot of information about
- how various other things work; missing documentation, suggestions,
- "internal" parser engine information, infrastructure docs, and even some
- TODO lists are all examples of things included in the wiki.
-</p>
-
-
-
-
-<h3>So, how to get involved?</h3>
-<p>
- There are a lot of ways you can contribute to the project, it simply
depends on what you fancy.
-</p>
-<ul>
- <li>
- Do you want to work on UI design, or general website development?
- Looking for a place to experiment with emerging web technologies? We
have
- several websites, both 'internal' and external, many of which could
use a
- facelift, while others, quite frankly, could benefit from a complete
- rewrite.
- </li>
- <li>
- Do you enjoy technical writing? Discovering the inner workings of
things?
- Being the first one to try out not-even-yet-released features? Join the
- documentation team. Having a good understand of C will help when
documenting
- new features, but there will always be people around to explain
features to
- whomever wants to document them.
- </li>
- <li>
- Want to show off your sysadmin skillz? PHP.net has dozens of servers
- needing some love. Everything from simple web servers to complicated
mail
- setups, DNS and rsync servers to build-boxes and website mirroring
- infrastructure.
- </li>
-</ul>
-
-<p>
- Getting involved is a lot easier than most people think - and chances are
that
- you are already involved in one way or another. You don't need an Git
account
- and commit access to get started - Git accounts need to be earned.
Registering
- on the mailing lists related to the topic in which you are interested - and
- actively participating in the discussions - is a good start toward getting
- your request for an Git account granted. Browse the wiki to see if there
are
- outstanding TODO items you can help to clear, for example. Another great
way
- to get involved and really help out is by reviewing the bug tracker for
bugs
- you could potentially fix, or perhaps for which you could write a unit
test.
- Sending several pull requests, or attaching patches to bug reports will
- quickly show that you are interested and serious about your desire to
- contribute. Eventually someone will get annoyed with the amount of time
- they must spend to commit your patches for you, and will probably
respond
- with something along the lines of, "Stop bothering me. Do it yourself!"
and
- ask you to submit the Git account form. Mission accomplished!
-</p>
-
-
-
-
-<h3>Tips</h3>
-<ul>
- <li>
- <h4>Mailing Lists</h4>
- <p>
- To register with any PHP mailing list, just send a blank email to
- <listname>[email protected]. For example if you want
to register
- for the PHP internals developers discussion list, send an email to
- [email protected].
- Alternatively, filling out the form at <a
href="http://php.net/mailinglists";>php.net/mailinglists</a> will
- register you for the list (or lists) you choose. That page also
lists some of
- the most popular mailing lists and describes the intention of the
lists.
- Again, remember to refer to the rules prior to joining the
discussion, or you
- may be scorned for a faux-pas such as top-posting your reply to a
thread - oh the horror!
- </p>
- </li>
- <li>
- <h4>The Bug Tracker</h4>
- <p>
- Filing a bug report is an art. It isn't very complicated, but you
do
- have to think about what you are reporting. Quickly looking through
- the existing reports to see if your issue has already been reported
- will take you less than five minutes, and the chances are quite
good that
- you aren't the first one to identify the issue. However, if you
are,
- we greatly appreciate your time and effort in reporting it. If at
all
- possible, provide a short example of how the issue can be
reproduced,
- and mention what you expected to happen versus what actually
happened.
- Simple steps like these will drastically increase the chances of
- someone picking up the report and attempting to fix the issue.
While
- there is no registration or login required to file a bug report, a
- valid email address must be provided just in case the developers
need
- more information from you, as well as for you to receive status
- updates on your report. A page explaining how to file a "report
that
- someone will want to help fix" is available on
- <a
href="http://bugs.php.net/how-to-report.php";>bugs.php.net/how-to-report.php</a>.
Please read through it
- before filing a bug report for the first time.
- </p>
- </li>
- <li>
- <h4>Getting Started With Contributing</h4>
- <p>
- Unsure which task to tackle first? Stuck on a problem? Need a
- quick brainstorming session? IRC is a very convenient way to get
- help quickly for smaller things, such as "where was the Git module
- for zyx?" or if you simply want to run an idea by people to get
- their opinions - or even just to hang out. There aren't any
- "official" IRC channels for the PHP project, but a good chunk of
- contributors hang out on EFNet on the #php.pecl, #php.doc and #pear
- channels. The mailing list archives also contain a lot of
information
- and are definitely worth searching for ideas and inspiration. If
- you think your question can benefit others coming after you,
- consider asking it on the mailing list so the next person doesn't
- have to ask it again.
- </p>
- </li>
- <li>
- <h4>Less Is More</h4>
- <p>
- When you are ready to contribute to the project please don't try
- to tackle the biggest issues and expect to fix them right away.
- Start with smaller tasks and learn the ways of the project and
- participate in discussions on the mailing lists. Larger issues
- take more time and experience within the project, which is not
- something on which newcomers should focus. Take your time and
- solve the task as best as you possibly can. Read up on the Coding
- Standards and try to be consistent in your work. We have lost too
- many people who jump right on the larger tasks only to vanish few
- days later, having given up on the task because it took more time
- and effort than they initially anticipated.
- </p>
- </li>
-</ul>
-
-
-
-<h3>So what kind of projects does PHP.net have?</h3>
-<ul>
- <li>PHP (the language)</li>
- <li>PECL (various additional PHP functionality in the form of
extensions)</li>
- <li>PEAR (reusable PHP component library)</li>
- <li>Websites (php.net, qa.php.net, doc.php.net, edit.php.net, etc.)</li>
- <li>Documentation (PHP, PECL, PEAR, etc.)</li>
- <li>System administration (mail servers, web servers, build-boxes,
monitoring, etc.)</li>
- <li>Etc., etc., (etc.)</li>
-</ul>
-
-<p>
- If you can't find something on which to work within PHP.net, you will have
a
- hard time finding it elsewhere. Introducing every project is beyond the
scope
- of this article, but we'll cover some of the projects that don't have entry
- points that are too steep for newcomers.
-</p>
-
-
-
-<h3>The Documentation Project</h3>
-<p>
- The main focus of the documentation project (phpdoc) is to document the PHP
- language (and PECL extensions) with usage examples, FAQs, and tracking
changes
- in behaviour. The documentation is written in XML using the Docbook format
- with English as the primary language. This is then translated into several
- different languages by dedicated translation teams. The phpdoc team also
- maintains sets of scripts to simplify the work: generation of skeletons for
- new extensions and functions based on Reflection information, extracting
INI
- options, and various related utilities to extract information from the PHP
- source code are all examples of tools used to make writing documentation
- easier. The primary mailing list for phpdoc is [email protected], where
- contributors coordinate their efforts and ask for feedback, suggestions,
and
- help. The list also covers the phpdoc sub-projects, such as the PhD and PhD
- O.E. applications. Each translation team also has its own mailing list:
- doc-<country-code>@lists.php.net. For example, [email protected]
for
- the French translation list.
-</p>
-
-<p>
- A web application, called "PhD Online Editor" (PhD O.E), which aims to help
- documentation editors focus on the content itself, rather than Docbook and
XML
- logistics, is under development at <a
href="https://edit.php.net";>edit.php.net</a>. It is getting
- more and more popular, especially for newcomers who aren't comfortable with
- Docbook. It has a very rich interface and desktop application feeling to
it,
- and abstracts most of the XML magic from the contributor. One of the goals
- of PhD O.E. is to get more people involved with the documentation effort,
- and therefore it will allow anonymous users to "login" and use the
- application. Modification, validation, translation, creation of new files,
- and everything else you need for writing documentation is possible without
- an Git account. When saving changes, a patch will be created and saved to
- the "patch queue," while pending approval by someone with Git karma to
- commit the changes. PhD O.E. also bundles a variety of scripts to ensure
the
- docs use a consistent structure, allow the contributor to view undocumented
- functions, and check the translation status of an entry (among other
things).
-</p>
-
-<p>
- The team is also developing a Docbook rendering engine, called "PHP-based
- Docbook Rendering" (PhD), to transform the Docbook XML into various
different
- formats, such as HTML, CHM, PDF, Unix manual pages, and the online format
you
- see while browsing the <a href="http://php.net/manual";>PHP Manual</a>. The
application was written with
- performance in mind and can render the entire PHP manual in less then five
- minutes, whereas the previous tool chain would take over an hour for the
same
- task. PhD has received a lot of attention from various people and projects
- using Docbook, and is now also in use outside of PHP.net for the rendering
of
- Docbook manuals.
-</p>
-
-
-<p>
- Last, but not least: the team also maintains a website on
- <a href="http://doc.php.net";>doc.php.net</a> which aggregates translation
- statistics, tutorials, and the documentation HOWTO.
-</p>
-
-<p>
- The project offers much more than just documentation, and is probably the
- project to which it is easiest to start contributing. If you enjoy working
- with XML, PHP, JS, documentation, writing articles, or simply want to dig
- into the PHP internals from a different angle, this is the place to be.
-</p>
-
-
-<h3>The Websites</h3>
-<p>
- No surprise there, the webmaster team maintains several websites, and is
- responsible for maintaining the mirroring infrastructure and related tasks.
- The websites contain a lot of information; everything from user group
meet-ups
- and conference listings, to tips & tricks and documentation, and
- everything between. It is also the primary public source for release
- information, as well as the general entry point for people looking into
PHP.
-</p>
-
-<p>
- To get up and running is very simple: just follow the points on
- <a href="http://wiki.php.net/web/mirror";>wiki.php.net/web/mirror</a>
- and you are all set. Once you have poked around a little you can look
- into the other websites, like qa.php.net, master.php.net and pecl.php.net.
-</p>
-
-<p>
- Recently, work on redesigning the main website from the ground-up was
started.
- Unfortunately, this effort has stalled a bit over the past several months
- due to a lack of contributors interested in being actively involved.
- The idea is simple: design a completely new layout and refactor the
current
- content to make it more accessible.
-</p>
-
-<p>
- Joining the redesign effort is a great entry point for those interested in
- markup, CSS, and general website development. Check out
- <a href="http://wiki.php.net/web/redesign";>wiki.php.net/web/redesign</a>
- and contact [email protected] if you are interested in
contributing.
- You will be welcomed with roses!
-</p>
-
-
-
-<h3>Conclusion</h3>
-<p>
- PHP.net has a lot of areas to which you can contribute: everything from
- hardcore development to managing user-contributed notes in the manual;
- from debugging issues in bug reports to writing articles about new
features
- for the manual. In this article we only covered the tip of the iceberg,
- mentioning only a small sample of concrete projects that do a lot more
than
- initially meets the eye, and which welcome all the help they can get.
- We have also touched on how to influence the direction of the project,
- how to participate in discussions around the project, and ways you can
make
- a difference. I hope this article has inspired you to get involved with
the
- project, or has at least given you some idea on how things work and what
you
- can do if you ever do decide you want to get involved!
+ Below are some useful links for developers:
+ <ul>
+ <li><a href="http://lxr.php.net";>lxr</a> - an online interface to the
PHP source, providing search facilities useful for programmers and
researchers</li>
+ <li><a href="https://wiki.php.net/rfc/howto";>The RFC process</a> - the
process by which developers can suggest and discuss new ideas with the
community</li>
+ <li><a href="/build-setup">Developer Setup Help</a> - some helpful
information regarding setting up a development environment for PHP</li>
+ </ul>
</p>
-
-
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