People just don't read the php documentation.

Anon

I don't mean to sound like a broken record here but I've been solving peoples problems in this forum for a couple of months now and the one thing I notice is that most of them could be easily solved if the person just looked up the functions specs in the php documentation. Thats actualy how I've been solving most of these problems, hell I can't remember every function in the book so I keep the Adobe Acrobat formated version handy all the time, a simple search and I find what I'm looking for 95% of the time.

I'm not trying to discourage people from posting, I'm just trying to encourage more people to go download a copy of the documentation to their local systems and actualy sit down and read the "Language Reference" chapter and the "Features" chapter, this are the basic essentials of php all covered in less that 64 pages of well spaced text.

I started learning php only 3-4 months ago, and this is where I started. I now know more about the language than most people I know who have been trying to program in it for over a year all because I took the time to read these simple chapters, they lead me to a much better understanding of the language than any tutorial or book.

As for the rest of the documentation, it's great too, got a problem with sessions, 90% of the time the reason for the problem is stated clearly in black and white in the sessions section ("LIII. Session handling functions") of the documentation.

Anyways, rant mode off...

Aside from that I do enjoy solving peoples problems and giving something back to the community, else I wouldn't be here in the first place ehe. 🙂

Anon

Cockiness aside, if people knew the answers to their problems or knew where to find them, then they probably wouldn't post here. If you don't like the questions people ask, why do you answer them? I am no PHP expert but I will have to say I have seen you give bunk info here as well, so why are you trying to discourage people from posting here? I say if you don't like the questions then don't answer them!

Anon

I take it you didn't actualy read my messge all the way through, I was saying that it would be nice if they would have a copy of the documentation handy so that they could at least look up a function that they knew the name for already to find the do's and don'ts on it before posting here.

And here's the kicker for those that didn't know where to find the answers before, well I just told them, so those that read that message might go, "hey there's a big file that can tell me how to program this thing, where do I sign up"

As I said in the end of my message I don't mind answering questions, I like being helpful, and this is just another way to help those people out, by getting them to help themselves. This is what good little programmers do.

Didn't yer moma ever teach ya this one:

"Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a week.
Teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime."

Anon

I have to agree with Shaun on this. An awful lot of questions are posted by people who did not bother to look up a function definition.

Example: setcookie() generating an error. Anyone who bothers to look at the documentation will see this sentence: "Cookies must be sent before any other headers are sent (this is a restriction of cookies, not PHP). This requires you to place calls to this function before any or <head> tags."

Example: can I use PHP to include files in my pages like SSI? There is an entire section of the PHP manual devoted to very powerful file functions. You can't read through the manual without noticing that, and if you search the manual for the word "include," the include() function will be pretty obvious.

Anon

I used to be a "Ask questions first" type of guy but ever since going into "Read first" mode I've found myself learning about 100x as much and actually remember much of it!

By sifting through the manual, one will stumble upon other useful functions. For example, I remember when I looked up "sprintf" I went through other string related functions and found "ucwords" , which was something I needed for a project and I feared I'd have to do RegEx for it (I was really really scared of Regular Expressions but now I am just scared 😉 BTW, the RegEx Article here is WONDERFUL.

Point is, once one starts reading the manual the learning really sets in. Still, reading and rereading basic PHP tutorials is a good start and allows the manual to stick to your brain. Reading the manual helps PHP Articles (like on phpbuilder) make sense.

If you're stuck, here's what you could do :

Search manual (especially if you need help with a function!)
Search php forums and mailing lists
Search google (adding the term PHP helps)
Post question with educated thoughts and some detail on what you want to do and what you tried to do.

Doing searches you WILL find other useful information and with any luck, most likely find the answer to your question. And if not, don't hesitate to post to the forum, people love to help. In fact, many answers you see here are a result of a little research , not straight out of the brain. And guess who learns the most during this process? Yes you guessed it, the researcher.

If you're looking up a function in the manual, READ THE ANNOTATIONS IN THE MANUAL. When you do a search on PHP.net and see the results, annotated links don't have the html dir in it. So :

php.net/manual/function.TERM.php = annotated
php.net/manual/html/function.TERM.php = not annotated

BTW, you can search the php manual like this :

php.net/TERM

and it automagically does a search for that TERM (one of the most useful 404 pages I've seen)

And remember, don't just read the examples, replicate/modify/break/do them and see what happens. This is very important. Yeah, reading what a function looks like is one thing but can you create your own? Test yourself.

So, those are some thoughts from a struggling non-CS person learning and loving PHP. I actually am working on a PHP metasearch support tool that hopefully will be public soon, will keep you posted.

And remember, NOBODY has memorized the PHP Manual and NOBODY has all the answers.

Philip

Anon

The Point I was trying to make is that, if everyone used the manual there would be no reason for this forum. I have never even asked a question on this forum, I opt to use the manual and learn it for myself. But I am not everyone and I CHOOSE to come here and help out when I can. People may not have the time, skills or desire to read the manual and that is why they come here. Again if you don't like the questions, then don't answer them. Just because you do things one way doesn't mean everyone else does. That is what makes the world go 'round. So instead of lecturing people about using the manula first, let people do whatever the hell they want, and answer questions if you want or don't if you don't want to.

Anon

Just letting people know what's worked for me. Hell yeah people can do what they want but giving some direction and thoughts for 'doing it better and more optimally' are okay, right?

I believe the original thought (at least to me) was to let everyone know that reading the manual is a good thing. This is something I finally figured out for myself.

Ask questions all you want. Read the manual all you want. The manual is not scary, it only seems so, at first.

Oh yeah, and printing articles and tutorials really helps too. I reread printouts all the time.

BTW, does anyone know where we can get an annotated PDF PHP4 manual?

Anon

Amen to that brother.

Doing a simple search on things like the function-name or errorcode in the online manual here at www.phpbuilder.com takes only a few seconds.

Get a problem with php
Look for information in the manual.
3a. If problem solved, be happy.
3b. If problem persists, post message.

Anon

Shaun Hawkes, why did you felt like posting this topic? the whole point of this forum is to ask questions and answer them if you know it.

everyone knows that 'manuals' do exist, and its person's choice to post the question here or read the manual.

isnt this the whole point of Forums?
i agree with Louie here...

have fun,
Daarius