Re:How I built the IMDb message boards, in 2001
by vvanders on Tuesday February 07, 2017 @01:04PM
(#13591213)
Yup, PHP back then had one of the best documentation pages out there. It's hard to explain how big a deal it was(esp before the days of stack overflow).
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:How I built the IMDb message boards, in 2001
by aeontech on Tuesday February 07, 2017 @02:28PM
(#13591902)
Absolutely! I honestly think that if PHP didn't have those incredibly accessible documentation pages, it would never have taken off in the way it did. It was StackOverflow before there was StackOverflow.
Re:How I built the IMDb message boards, in 2001
by lupin_sansei on Thursday February 09, 2017 @08:14PM
(#13612542)
Yes it was a stroke of genius for php to add user comments to the bottom of the page describing each function/method etc. the examples in those comments were often much better than the documentation itself. I remember in early 2000s trying to persuade someone at CPAN to add comments to the bottom of CPAN, but they didn't get that they actually had to be on the page at the bottom for anyone to read them.