[discussion moved over from dev to doc list]

Brian Lalor wrote:
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> 
> 
>>>Thanks for bringing that up, Jon.  How do I know which version of the
>>>documentation applies to a particular released version of PHP?  We're still
>>>using php 4.0.6 where I work, but the documentation for the sockets library
>>>(for example) reflects some newer (unspecified) version and doesn't apply what
>>>I'm using.  Is the documentation versioned in some way I'm missing?
>>
>>It's not versioned. Most of the time the documentation refers to the 
>>latest release (or even CVS version). Also if you are going to play with 
>>sockets you really shoul be using versions later than 4.0.6.
> 
> 
> I really think it should be.  Your statement above makes the documentation
> worthless to everyone who isn't up to validating the docs against the PHP
> source.

*if* we had ever had an up-to-date documentation for a release, versioning
it togeter with that release would be not only an option but the obviously
right thing to do.

So all we can do right now (besides the automatic version tracking for
function existance) is to document the introduction of additional optional
parameters, changes in parameter semantics or even changes in function
behavior (although we don't have these that often as we are rather conservative
about backwards compatibility) as <note>s within the documentation that
tell about version-specific features.

We have been talking about a dedicated "changelog" section within function
description pages that would collect version-specific stuff in one place
instead of notes spread all over a functions page, but work on this hasn't
started yet.

PS: the php manual repository is already pusching CVS to its limits,
so managing multiple versioned branches of the manual won't work for practical
reasons right now, even if we could do it from a content point of view :(


-- 
Six Offene Systeme GmbH     http://www.six.de/
i.A. Hartmut Holzgraefe
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Tel.:  +49-711-99091-77


-- 
PHP Documentation Mailing List (http://www.php.net/)
To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php

Reply via email to