PHP Function Index - A desktop PHP reference
Oct 06, '04 11:05:00AM
Contributed by: robg
The macosxhints Rating:

[Score: 9 out of 10]
For the third week in a row, this week's pick is related to my work on the future version of macosxhints (which is making great progress, now that I can spend nearly two full days a week on it!). Previously, I touched on a utility to display screen sizes and a CSS editor; this time, it's a handy little PHP reference manual.
PHP is the language that powers the Geeklog engine, which in turn creates the pages you are reading now. Not being a programmer by training, I know just enough about PHP to get myself into trouble. That's where the PHP Function Index comes in. This desktop application lists all the PHP functions and their explanations, directly from the PHP documentation. This information is available for free, of course, on the documentation pages at php.net. The advantage of having the docs in an OS X app, to me anyway, is that you get a nice, non-browser interface with quick searchability and an easy-to-use bookmarking feature (for your often-visited commands).
There are three license levels for the PHP Function Index -- the free version is for users who don't make any money doing PHP development; the $8.50 version is for those who make less than 50% of their income doing PHP coding, and the $16.50 version is for professional PHP coders.
Installation is relatively easy, though you do have to download the documentation yourself (to insure the program has the most current version). I gave it a 9 out of 10 for one reason only -- the online manual has the option to see user-submitted comments, some of which are a great help in further explaining how to use the various commands. As far as I can tell, there's no way to load the user-commented pages into PHP Function Index. Other than that, though, this useful little program helped me muddle through yet another trivial (for a pro!) Geeklog modification...
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