On Jan 30, 2013, at 2:37 AM, Peter Cowburn wrote:

> On 30 January 2013 09:37, Ferenc Kovacs <tyr...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> hi,
>> 
>> could you please link the relevant page about this?
>> 
>> <snip>
>> 
>> Before I commited the change, I looked around, and every other alias under
>> spl had the method synapsis with the exception of
>> splfileobject/getcurrentline.xml(which should be also fixed depending on the
>> outcome of this discussion):
>> 
>> splobjectstorage/offsetunset.xml
>> splobjectstorage/offsetexists.xml
>> splobjectstorage/offsetset.xml
>> splqueue/enqueue.xml
>> splqueue/dequeue.xml
>> 
>> So I think that the method should be listed in the synopsis (to avoid
>> confusion), there are existing precedences for aliases between class methods
>> having methodsynopsis and there is nothing (or at least I couldn't find)  in
>> the docs related to this, so nothing which would prohibit the methodsynopsis
>> usage in this case.
>> 
>> What do you think?
>> 
> 
> The doc howto (usually at http://doc.php.net/php/dochowto which is
> broken, the source is in doc-base/howto) says that aliases should not
> have the synopsis and should only direct readers to the aliased
> function/method. [1]
> 
> We break this rule in many SPL doc pages already, sometimes on
> purpose.  It probably happens elsewhere too. The reasons are twofold:
> 1. many of the pages are little more than skeleton docs so have the
> normal method page structure rather than the proper alias one; 2. It's
> nice to have the method synopsis there since then those methods are
> then listed in the class synopsis.
> 
> Should we think about amending the howto with regards to maybe adding
> in a synopsis for methods? Obviously that works against us in terms of
> maintenance (more places to change should the method signatures
> change) and cleanliness (the alias page's job is to redirect to the
> appropriate fully-documented method).
> 
> Or, is there a way to get these aliases showing up in the class
> synopsis method list whilst keeping the alias page without a method
> synopsis?
> 
> [1] 
> http://svn.php.net/viewvc/phpdoc/doc-base/trunk/howto/working.xml?view=markup#l343

Hello friends,

Sounds like we should add <methodsynopsis> to every SPL alias for now, 
and consider alternatives later.

And this alias discussion reveals additional holes in the process of 
documenting aliases. For example, the following list:

  http://php.net/aliases

This list is outdated, which suggests removal or a major overhaul. And 
it doesn't differentiate between deprecated, removed, or permanent 
aliases. But more on that later.

And we add XML documents for some aliases. Which? I don't remember how 
exactly we decided to document aliases but I agree the likes of msql() 
(from the PHP 2 days?) do not require their own files/pages. Many of 
the old aliases would be deprecated->removed from PHP-src if someone 
presented the idea. Note: I am not presenting the idea. :) 

As for what to do, I recommend:

  a) We add <methodsynopsis> to all SPL aliases
  b) Be certain that every "Class synopsis" page is accurate

And consider/discuss:

  c) List all aliases, and define the current and desired documentation 
     status of each. How can we do this? Parse php-src? 
  d) Add a <methodsynopsis> to all documented PHP method aliases?
     And functions? Would (d) help code-insight for IDEs?
  e) PhD improvements, regarding alias handling 

Thoughts?

Regards,
Philip

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