In version 12 it was one page with a short abstract only. In version 13 and latest sources there are also credits with authors and editors. This division makes additional expandable "book" in TOC with all bookmarks leading to the same page. I do not know if it confuses users, but for me such division is useless and make manual look more like hardcopy books, where you do not need to look at these pages as long as you don't interested in that kind of information. But that's not true for xCHM version where this attention can decrease usability because frequently accessed information is located among similar graphical markup. I'm writing this with a great respect to all manual developers, editors, authors and contributors, because I think PHP manual is a major part of PHP success on windows platform. That's why I'm asking about what will be the best way to include information about people, who contributed to PHP docs in xCHM version. I have some proposals: 1. Leave as is Default way some may easily agree with because of simplicity in implementation (which should not be the goal, right?). That way we will have structure like Preface Authors and Contributors Authors and Editors User Note Maintainers as the third item of the manual TOC. Decreases usability by adding additional burden for users reading additional book title and perhaps contents to locate needed manual part.
GH> I had a hard time to undestand the point. These TOC items are expandable GH> from the Preface hierarchy, and by default they are not expanded. Or am GH> I mistaken?
You are right. They are not expanded by default, but displayed as a "book", so one still need to read the title to see what it is only Preface. To get to function reference you will need to review 7 upper "books" titles. After that one can become interested what can be in preface so authors made it expandable. One clicks the "book" and sees another "book". Inside second book there are two bookmarks, but this is still the same Preface page. So many excess operations just because of curiosity which at the same time don't reveal any new interesting information makes one feel uncomfortable, slightly disappointed. Maybe one was looking for PHP Tutorial, which is actually in Getting Started or Install Instructions and thought it can be in Preface part.
Since traditional textbooks use a similar formatting, I don't have a problem with this solution. Those who would like to conquer the preface will finally found our names :) This is not bad :))
Goba
