Been coding PHP for past week and then some. I just noticed today, however, that php.net‘s function search is doing the Google Suggest thing.
Blatant imitation is sometimes looked on as wrong, uncool, and unoriginal. To me, this is a great technology and/or method, so why not use it to benefit mankind?
I know it benefits me looking through array methods via typing 2 keys; awesome!
Actually… VERY COOL. Since PHP.net has a limited list of functions, they’re all built-in and there’s no delay in updating the list as you’d expect from a querying system (like google). I could notice it takes a few seconds to load, but after that, it’s real fast. Very, very nice. I’m the kind of guy who always forgets the correct function name on php (I only use it once in a while), this makes finding the right one really easier. :)
Yah, same here… I think the only functions I can keep memorized in PHP for any length of time longer than a month is ‘count’, and ‘explode’, even though I forget what explode actually does… I think the name just sounds fuggin cool!
Google suggest is the ‘blatant imitator‘ here…
PHP.net started using the function type-ahead suggestions about a year ago, before Google suggest existed, (as currently mentioned on the front PHP.net page in dec27 comment).
Quote:
‘The function list suggestions we started to test a year ago seemed to be working better as some bugs were found and fixed, so it was time to make the result available on all php.net pages.‘
More info here: http://php.net/search.php