diff --git a/appendices/about.xml b/appendices/about.xml new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..7a38a60532 --- /dev/null +++ b/appendices/about.xml @@ -0,0 +1,233 @@ + + + + + More about this Manual + + + PHP Manual formats + + We provide the PHP Manual in several formats. For first + glance, these formats can be devided into two groups, + online readable formats and downloadable packages. + + + You can read the Manual online at + &url.php; and on the several mirror sites. We advise + you to choose one nearby mirror site, if you would like + to use this form of our Manual, as you can get better + speed. For the online Manual you can choose from two + layouts, so you always have the ability to view the printer + friendly version if you have a slow connection, or would + like to print out one page. The main advantage of these + online Manuals is that you can read the most actual manual + along the user notes, + and you don't need to set up any software, as you only need + a web browser to see it. The major disadvantage is that you + need to always be online, you can face with server + availability problems, you can't do a full text search on + the manual, and there is no full index of manual pages. + + + If you decide to download the PHP Manual, you can choose + from many different formats we provide. What you choose + depends on your operating system, and your personal + reading style. If you are interested, how we can generate + these many formats, read on the technical part of this + appendix named How we + generate the formats. + + + The HTML and text files may be the most crossplatform + format, as there is a text viewer and/or a browser + on all operating systems. We provide the HTML files + in several compressed formats for the different + operating systems. Using the all-on-one-page HTML + or text version is not ideal for day to day work, + although full text search is easy in such files. + Note, that the compressed file with several HTML + files contain more than 2000 files. Using + that you face the lack of offline search, but + you gain the fast access to information anytime. + + + PDF is also a popular cross platform format. This + is the best for printing, although we do not + recommend printing out the manual in a whole, as + it can take so much reqources. As the manual + changes from day to day, think twice before + you print out the whole manual. Viewing PDF, + you have the full text search ability. Note, that + you need Adobe + Acrobat Reader to read the PDF files. + + + The PalmPilot DOC and iSilo formats are ideal + if you travel a lot and would like to learn + more from the manual while on road or in air. + You can bring your Palm with you, with the + DOC + or iSilo + reader installed respectively for the format + you downloaded. This is not the best way to + learn PHP, but can be handy to get answers + quickly. + + + At last, but not least, we have a Windows + HTML Help version of the PHP Manual. It is + actually a spiced up HTML package. The biggest + advantage of HTML Help (also known as CHM) + is that the viewer provides full text search, + search in search results, full index, and + bookmarking. This format also kindly integrates + with many popular PHP IDEs on Windows. + The biggest disadvantage is that it is only + available on Windows operating systems. + + + + + About user notes + + User notes are an important part while reading the + PHP Manual. Some user notes contain very valuable + information. We basically set up the user note system, + to let people add their own examples, warnings about + functions, language elements, etc. + + + Note, that the user notes are not moderated before + they appear on the PHP sites, so the quality of + content cannot be guaranteed. + + + If you can't find a solution for your problem in + the user notes, you may consider reading the + section How to find + more information about PHP. + + + + + How to find more information about PHP + + This Manual is not intended to be a full programmers + quide. If you are completely a beginner in programming, + you might not get used to PHP by only reading the Manual. + You may consider buying a book with deeper explanation + on simple programming tasks. You can find a listing + of books at + &url.php.books;. + We do not recommend you to buy a reprint of the PHP + Manual, because these are commonly quite outdated. + Consider, that the PHP manual is changing from day + to day. + + + If you think someone already faced the exact problem, + you are stuggling, you can ask your questions on + one of our popular mailing lists. There are plenty + of them grouped by subject. You may receive an answer + for your question in minutes in the busyest hours. + You can subscribe to one mailing list at &url.php.support;. + You can also find IRC channels linked on this + page in the left bar. + + + If you are not fan of mail discussions, you can also + find many community sites listed on our links page at + &url.php.links;. + + + + + How to help improve the documentation + + Of course you can help to improve our documentation. + There are basically to ways of doing this. + + + If you find any errors in this manual, in any language, + please report them using the bug system at: + &url.php.bugs;. + Classify the bug as "Documentation Problem". This way + we can follow every bug and track the things done to + eliminate them from the documentation. You can also + submit format problems (eg. PHP Manual PDF displayed + incorrectly). + + + By adding annotations to pages, you can provide more + examples to readers than any single manual writer. + Readers very much appreciate useable user comments. + Do not submit bug reports using the annotation system + please. Read more about annotations in the About user notes part. + + + + + How we generate the formats + + This manual is written in XML using the DocBook XML DTD, using DSSSL (Document + Style and Semantics Specification Language) for formatting, and + experimentaly the XSLT + (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) + for maintenance and formatting. + + + Using XML as a source format gives us + the ability to generate many output formats from the source + files, only maintaining one source document for all formats. + The tools used for formatting HTML and + TeX versions are + Jade, written by James Clark and The Modular DocBook Stylesheets + written by Norman Walsh. + We use Microsoft HTML Help + Workshop to generate the Windows HTML Help format + of the manual, and of course PHP itself to do some + conversions, and formatting. + + + You can download the actual manual in various languages and + formats, including plain text, plain HTML, + PDF, PalmPilot DOC, PalmPilot iSilo and + Windows HTML Help, from + &url.php.docs;. + The manuals are updated as the source XML files are changed. + + + You can find more information about downloading the + XML source code of this documentation + at &url.php.cvs;. The + documentation is stored in the phpdoc module. + + + + + +