Re: [PHP] Frustrated trying to get help from your site
Jon Anderson wrote: > > Jay Blanchard wrote: >> So let me send a rant to other users, in fact a general list of users, >> because I cannot read. If I could I would know that I subscribed to a >> list where questions are asked to other users rather than me trying to >> send an e-mail to the president of PHP (a hat worn proudly). The entire >> sire is documentation and anywhere from one to five minutes of even the >> lightest reason would have spelled that out, not to mention that the >> second link across the top of the page says in very vague terms, >> 'documentation'. Is this a run on paragraph? I am asking because English >> is incredibly frustrating and difficult to use. >> >> Department of Technology indeed. >> > As an aside, I think that the online and offline (downloadable) PHP > documentation is probably the clearest, best organized and complete set > of documentation for any programming language I've run into online. > > I honestly think that the PHP coders/documentors deserve a lot of > gratitude for the immense effort that must have gone into documenting > the immense list of built-in stuff that PHP has. > > jon > > -- > PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php > > > FULL ACK! -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Frustrated-trying-to-get-help-from-your-site-tf2292725.html#a6394118 Sent from the PHP - General mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] Frustrated trying to get help from your site
Richard Lynch wrote: In brief, to explain a snapshot in layman's terms: that's probably a bad idea. anyone that doesn't know what a snapshot is, probably shouldn't need to know - they are most likely working in a package-based environment (either Windows, or an RPM-based Linux), where it would be more beneficial to explain how they can upgrade their systems using packages. If you go down the route of explaining what a "snapshot" is, then you will find yourself being asked what "gcc" is, and where you can get it... Tim, you are better off asking one of your administrators for help. Kae -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] Frustrated trying to get help from your site
On Mon, September 18, 2006 1:43 pm, Jon Anderson wrote: > As an aside, I think that the online and offline (downloadable) PHP > documentation is probably the clearest, best organized and complete > set > of documentation for any programming language I've run into online. Certainly online. I think that "Common Lisp, the Language", might give it a run for its money in the offline category. :-) Hell, I even re-read that book for fun one time, and I rarely read textbooks the first time around... > I honestly think that the PHP coders/documentors deserve a lot of > gratitude for the immense effort that must have gone into documenting > the immense list of built-in stuff that PHP has. Let it also be noted that the PHP Community, the people on this very list, are largely responsible for much of the documentation through User Contributed Notes that got promoted to "real" status, or, for that matter, that exist as a priceless body of work in themselves. -- Like Music? http://l-i-e.com/artists.htm -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] Frustrated trying to get help from your site
On Mon, September 18, 2006 12:08 pm, Howard, Tim wrote: > I am a programmer who is fairly new to PHP, and I had a problem trying > to make changes to existing code. I tried to look up any existing > documentation on your site, and after an extensive search, I finally > found someone who has the same problem. The only problem is that he > said something about applying a snapshot that fixed his problem. I > think I finally found the place on your site where these "snapshots" > are > kept, but I am unable to download the .ZIP file because of security > here > at our facility. The thing is, I'm not even sure whether I'm on the > right page, or whether this will actually fix my problem, or what I'm > supposed to do with this "snapshot" once I get it. You have no > documentation (that I can find) about what a "snapshot" is, or how to > download it, or what to do with it. I think I'm going to have to > submit > a bug report, because I don't know what else to do on your site (even > though I've run across several warnings NOT to submit a bug report if > a > problem has already been reported). Your site is incredibly > frustrating > and difficult to navigate. First and foremost, you'd have to tell us which issue you are trying to solve, and what links made you think a snapshot would fix it. Without that, we're guessing from a pool of approximiately 60,000 known issues that you might be trying to solve, and we are unlikely to give good advice. You probably followed a link and ended up on this: http://snaps.php.net/ It's true that there's a lot of links to a lot of stuff to download, and not much explanatory text there... This page, however, is a good starting point for what this CVS / snapshot stuff is all about: http://us2.php.net/anoncvs.php This was the second link in a search from the homepage with "snapshot" and "online documentation" in the popup. In brief, to explain a snapshot in layman's terms: Many users compile PHP from source code. Various versions of PHP exist, but they can be widely categorized as: Old unsupported versions. Current Stable/Supported Versions. Snapshots taken at various points in time. CVS current work-in-progress. This is a bit of an over-simplification, but may help you understand "snapshot" better. So PHP "snapshots" are an automated process of taking developer's best guess as to what is currently "sort of stable, mostly" If the reference you cite is "old" then whatever it is that was in the "snapshot" is most likely already in current PHP stable -- So getting the "snapshot" from 60 minutes ago would just be silly. OTOH, if the reference is only a few weeks old, you may indeed be stuck with running bleeding-edge PHP to resolve it, and taking the risks that entails. We could not begin to advise anybody on that without knowing a whole lot more about their overall architecture and stability needs. E.g., An ISP with thousands of customers would almost certainly be ill-advised to run from a snapshot. E.g., A cron job to do one specific task running from a snapshot that resolves one particular issue, installed in a different directory than that running the actual web server or any other command line PHP scripts, makes perfect sense for almost anybody. I think you will find as time goes on that PHP Documentation is second to none, even if you ran into a frustrating dead end in this, your first, particular instance. -- Like Music? http://l-i-e.com/artists.htm -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] Frustrated trying to get help from your site
Howard, Tim wrote: Your site is incredibly frustrating and difficult to navigate. My site? Hmmm, I always thought it was pretty easy to navigate. I mean, if you're looking for draft beer equipment, all you have to do is click on the draft beer equipment link. I don't know how I can make that easier, but I will give it the old college try. -- John C. Nichel IV Programmer/System Admin (ÜberGeek) Dot Com Holdings of Buffalo 716.856.9675 [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] Frustrated trying to get help from your site
Jay Blanchard wrote: So let me send a rant to other users, in fact a general list of users, because I cannot read. If I could I would know that I subscribed to a list where questions are asked to other users rather than me trying to send an e-mail to the president of PHP (a hat worn proudly). The entire sire is documentation and anywhere from one to five minutes of even the lightest reason would have spelled that out, not to mention that the second link across the top of the page says in very vague terms, 'documentation'. Is this a run on paragraph? I am asking because English is incredibly frustrating and difficult to use. Department of Technology indeed. As an aside, I think that the online and offline (downloadable) PHP documentation is probably the clearest, best organized and complete set of documentation for any programming language I've run into online. I honestly think that the PHP coders/documentors deserve a lot of gratitude for the immense effort that must have gone into documenting the immense list of built-in stuff that PHP has. jon -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] Frustrated trying to get help from your site
On 9/18/06, Howard, Tim <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I am a programmer who is fairly new to PHP, and I had a problem trying to make changes to existing code. I tried to look up any existing documentation on your site, and after an extensive search, I finally found someone who has the same problem. The only problem is that he said something about applying a snapshot that fixed his problem. I think I finally found the place on your site where these "snapshots" are kept, but I am unable to download the .ZIP file because of security here at our facility. The thing is, I'm not even sure whether I'm on the right page, or whether this will actually fix my problem, or what I'm supposed to do with this "snapshot" once I get it. You have no documentation (that I can find) about what a "snapshot" is, or how to download it, or what to do with it. I think I'm going to have to submit a bug report, because I don't know what else to do on your site (even though I've run across several warnings NOT to submit a bug report if a problem has already been reported). Your site is incredibly frustrating and difficult to navigate. Tim Howard Calhoun ISD Dept. of Technology (269) 789-2465 Tim, I don't know if you posted to this mailing list with the issues you've been having, but folks here - IMO - are more than happy to lend a hand when given a chance. David
RE: [PHP] Frustrated trying to get help from your site
[snip] I am a programmer who is fairly new to PHP, and I had a problem trying to make changes to existing code. I tried to look up any existing documentation on your site, and after an extensive search, I finally found someone who has the same problem. The only problem is that he said something about applying a snapshot that fixed his problem. I think I finally found the place on your site where these "snapshots" are kept, but I am unable to download the .ZIP file because of security here at our facility. The thing is, I'm not even sure whether I'm on the right page, or whether this will actually fix my problem, or what I'm supposed to do with this "snapshot" once I get it. You have no documentation (that I can find) about what a "snapshot" is, or how to download it, or what to do with it. I think I'm going to have to submit a bug report, because I don't know what else to do on your site (even though I've run across several warnings NOT to submit a bug report if a problem has already been reported). Your site is incredibly frustrating and difficult to navigate. [/snip] So let me send a rant to other users, in fact a general list of users, because I cannot read. If I could I would know that I subscribed to a list where questions are asked to other users rather than me trying to send an e-mail to the president of PHP (a hat worn proudly). The entire sire is documentation and anywhere from one to five minutes of even the lightest reason would have spelled that out, not to mention that the second link across the top of the page says in very vague terms, 'documentation'. Is this a run on paragraph? I am asking because English is incredibly frustrating and difficult to use. Department of Technology indeed. -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
[PHP] Frustrated trying to get help from your site
I am a programmer who is fairly new to PHP, and I had a problem trying to make changes to existing code. I tried to look up any existing documentation on your site, and after an extensive search, I finally found someone who has the same problem. The only problem is that he said something about applying a snapshot that fixed his problem. I think I finally found the place on your site where these "snapshots" are kept, but I am unable to download the .ZIP file because of security here at our facility. The thing is, I'm not even sure whether I'm on the right page, or whether this will actually fix my problem, or what I'm supposed to do with this "snapshot" once I get it. You have no documentation (that I can find) about what a "snapshot" is, or how to download it, or what to do with it. I think I'm going to have to submit a bug report, because I don't know what else to do on your site (even though I've run across several warnings NOT to submit a bug report if a problem has already been reported). Your site is incredibly frustrating and difficult to navigate. Tim Howard Calhoun ISD Dept. of Technology (269) 789-2465 This email is intended only for the use of the addressee(s) named herein. It may contain legally privileged and confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, or an authorized representative of the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any review, copying or distribution of this email and its attachments, if any, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please immediately notify the sender by return email and delete this email from your system. Thank you.
