questions about the formatting of PHP

bigscanner

There are some sections of my canned php script that look kind of "wonky" to me.
I'm a php beginner.

Can some of you vets look at this and tell me if the formatting is ok?
There are extra spaces here. Can I take them out?

<?#//v.1.0.1
#///////////////////////////////////////////////////////
#//  COPYRIGHT 2002 PHPAuction.org ALL RIGHTS RESERVED//
#//  For Source code for the GPL version go to        //  

#//  [url]http://phpauction.org[/url] and download               //
#///////////////////////////////////////////////////////

//-- Function definition section
include "./includes/dates.inc.php";

include "maintenance.php";
include "includes/banners.inc.php";



#//
if(basename($PHP_SELF) != "error.php")
{
	include "includes/stats.inc.php";
}

?>

Also - later in the script are tons of print functions like:

<? print $SETTINGS[sitename]?>

for example. Should they be on their own line?

Terry

edwardsbc

Actually, PHP doesn't really care about "white space". The parser ignores all spaces (well almost all), tabs, line feeds and carriage returns. Format it so it looks good to whoever is going to be reading it.

BTW, You shouldn't be in the habit of using short tags. Use <?php.

bigscanner

BTW, You shouldn't be in the habit of using short tags. Use <?php.

I didn't write the PHP - just trying to tweak the pages so they work ok.
Can you give me an example of your quote above?

Can you tell me what the difference is?

(Sorry if it sounds like a dumb question. Like the board says - I'm a "newbie" 🙂

Terry

edwardsbc

<?php print_$SETTINGS[sitename] ?>

Compare this to your posted code. It is possible that the short tag <? can conflict with other "markup". I don't actually know of another markup which uses <? ?>, but apparently there are some.

bigscanner

Ok - good advice.
Any others out there agree this is the norm?

Here's another bit of code from the index page - it's a banner rotator - ...
Tell me, should it have the 'php' designation after that opening <? as well?

<? 
				if($SETTINGS[banners] == 1)
				{
					view("_blank");
				}
				else
				{
					print "&nbsp;";
				}
			?>

Terry