A couple weeks ago, I [url=http://news.php.net/php.doc/969368780]posted the following[/url] (well, almost) to the PHP Doc list (don't worry, it's not a rant, this time). I haven't got much feedback from the list (we're busy guys!), and it's been a while, so I think it's about time I get some general feedback.
Short version: pre-built livedocs available for consumption by the enlightened (but not quite ready for newbies).
I've been working on packaging a pre-built Livedocs distribution. Ilia's recent changes have also been a catalyst for me to actually do something about this.
The project is currently in what I'd consider "early alpha" state, but the few people I've had test it say that it works fine.
So, basically what it is, is a pre-configured phpdoc + a pre-built livedocs, with the paths mangled (to work at any location in the filesystem), and all of the unnecessary files stripped out of the phpdoc tree (leaving only the DocBook XML). It's likely that there are more files that can be stripped, so I'm open to suggestions. It also marks the function pages with an identifier: "language/control-structures.xml $Revision: 1.119 $ | Sean's Pre-Built Livedocs 20050621 | generated: 2005-06-21 15:16:57 GMT"
Tarred and bzipped, it's around 4.5 megs. Not bad.
Short term goals:
- Get this working well on all tested platforms
- Create a new theme for this that's lighter than the php.net theme,
but DOES include a search box (only way to search, currently, is to hack
on the URL (using the default theme))
- Port my script to docweb, once we're reasonably happy with stability
(and save my bandwidth/CPU).
Long term goals:
- Distribute via php.net
- Use translations (livedocs dependent)
- Distribute as a PEAR package (PEAR's new channels seem like the
perfect candidate, as does the upcoming PHP_Archive package).
- "Make your own docs" where users can [un-]check the modules they
[don't] want, reducing the size of the tarball, and creating a custom
doc package. We could also have "common configurations" like "MySQL
developer" (remove all other database docs), as a base, before
[un-]checking modules.
And now, the URL:
[url=http://www.phpdoc.info/livedocs/built/]http://www.phpdoc.info/livedocs/built/[/url]
It's built nightly.
Feedback, please.
S
3months and no comment?
Great package. I struggled with many configuration problems under Windows to get the regular phpdocs built. Before I succeeded, I found livedocs which looked more appealing. I had problems setting that up too. The pre-built livedocs has given me a valuable boost in knowing how it all ends up. For new comers, they don't need to worry about so much configuration.
I have not yet done a comparison of the code between a cvs livedocs and the prebuilt set. I will be looking into it and seeing what other improvements to make.