Required tools
What tools you need depends on the operating system you use. Linux or some sort of Unix is recommended, although many things in phpdoc work on Windows. The very basic things you need to work:
- CVS account
- Command line CVS client
- Text editor
The basic process is to check out (download) the file using the CVS client, then edit it, and finally commit (upload) it to the server. Of course you can find better tools to edit XML files than a simple text editor, it is just the absolute minimum. Some more useful tools:
- Visual CVS client
- XML (capable) editor
- Tools to test your modifications
In the following paragraphs, you can find information about how to obtain these tools and how to make them work for you.
The last item in the above list (test your modifications) is the hardest to get working, as you need a copy of the English and your translation's language files. Also you need to set up the
Doc Book files, and several other tools. The viewable manual, and other formats such as PDF and RTF, are currently created using Jade /
Open Jade and Norman Walsh's Modular
Doc Book Stylesheets. There are other tools used to produce some other formats and files. It is recommended to set up Jade to be able to test your contributions. Otherwise you can easily cause headaches to other team members, or stop the automatic generation of the manual files. You'll also need a command line PHP installed to work with the test system.
If you have information about other good XML editors and/or tools not mentioned here, please send it to the phpdoc mailing list: phpdoc@lists.php.net.
