In this latest post to his site Christian Weiske shares three PHP manual viewers he finds useful (besides the actual PHP.net manual) and can be used offline.

The PHP documentation is really good. It covers almost all parts of the language and is filled with examples that help you grasp a function's meaning and usage really fast. And since PHP is a grown language, it's function naming and parameter order are often confusing - requiring you to look up the manual more often.

The three he suggests are:

• pman - PHP manual pages
• the xCHM version of the manual
• Zeal, which also has support for lots of other docs from other languages/tools

The PHP documentation team has made a new announcement about some major changes that are happening with the PHP documentation - three interesting new additions to this part of the PHP project.

PHP has several [three] new documentation features that the community should be aware of.

They've introduced the following:

• PHP manual pages (man pages) - pman - installed via PEAR
• An enhanced CHM (Windows help) version of the manual with user notes
• The Online Documentation Editor allowing edits from anyone.