Re: [Lcd4linux-devel] manpage for lcd4linux

[Xavier V. <xav...@fr...>]

Hi Jerry, hi list !

> 1. Exactly what on the lcd4linux website needs PHP?  We have a bunch
> of mostly static files up and it doesn't seem like we have many plans
> for dynamic content.  HTML and CSS are tailored to static content. 
> Why use PHP?  Xavier, you mentioned before that the News and Changelog
> sections could be automatically handled by PHP, but in reality, how
> often do these change?  Once a month?  When they are changed, how long
> does it take, maybe 30 minutes?  With PHP and your solution, how long
> will it take?  20 minutes?  Is the time-saving worth the extra time
> spent writing and maintaining the PHP pages?
In fact, then the site admin can add news with a web-based interface in
a bunch of minutes, modify last release (verion and date) information.
Adding a new documentation would just consist on SCPing the file and
adding a link in the mysql database.
It's right, maybe all this may not be suficient to justify the use of
PHP, but believe me, there are other reasons comming through my mind.
I'll code a test engine on my spare time, you'll be able to see it, and
then we'll discut more about it.

> 2. What happens when the PHP breaks and you aren't around to maintain
> it?  Michael then gets stuck with it because he wants to release the
> next version of lcd4linux and he has to update the webpage.  Myself,
> I would rather have Michael working on adding new features to lcd4linux
> than maintaining PHP code he knows nothing about. (I don't mean to 
> say that you aren't reliable or anything like that, just that we can't
> be around all the time.)
The purpose of such an engine is to code it once, and then not touch it.
The engine will consist of some include files, and then the interface
just has to include("../php-includes/include.inc"); and call the
predefined functions.
When releasing a new version, Michael would have to add a new, change
release variables, and upload an updated "what's new page".
Changing documentation would be : compiling docbook sources, passing it
through a script and SCPing it, that's all. I don't think the engine may
break without reasons.

> 3. Integration with autogenerated HTML, such as DocBook files that 
> are rendered in HTML.  Can we still throw the DocBook output up on
> the website?
Yes ! It's the main reason ! In fact, we'll have to write a modified dtd
stylesheet to call engine functions instead of using html tags. This may
be done with a script too without modifying the stylesheet, but a new
sheet would be proper.
/me has to learn more about docbook to know how to write customized
stylesheets.

> How is writing the webpages in PHP different from writing lcd4linux
> in Java?  PHP has a lot of really cool features that I don't see a 
> need for here.
You're rude here. In fact, I see a bunch of advantages to write the site
in PHP:
- keep documentations clean (without frames, fixed styles, ...)
- help the maintainers (new versions, new docs)
- be more attractive (in fact it'll be the role of CSS)
- add interactivity ?
- ...
Once more, I think I should write a test engine before continuing this
thread.

Bye !
-- 
Xavier VELLO <xav...@fr...>