Re: [Phpgroupware-developers] Discussion: include/require stateme nts

[Chris Weiss]

On 5/10/05, Kai Hofmann <address@hidden> wrote:
> > That is what we have the setup app for.  Again you have cut
> > the relevant
> > part of the post out.  The point is to run some basic checks using
> > include_once in the header and setup to make sure the install is setup
> > properly.  If it isn't then we present a clear error to the user, no
> > something like
> >
> > Which is more useful for a user
> 
> I think only administrators will setup a groupware and can find these
> kind of problems.
> 
> > I don't think an end user you ever be presented with a raw php error.
> 
> Thats correct, but as said before these kind of errors can
> not happen to end users, only to administrators who are doing
> a setup.
> 

Kia, I think you are giving these "administrators" too much credit. 
There are many people trying to run phpgw that are also running apache
and php for the first time.  A raw php error message is very
disconcerning to these people.  Aslo, as an administrator myself, I
appreciate when an app tells me what's wrong with it insead of dieing
with some raw error message.  Adds a profesional touch and lends to a
refreshing feeling of "oh, that makes sense, how nice they handled
that error so well" instead of a depressing feeling of "crap, now I
have to debug it".

Now, if you replace "administrators" with "developers" I would agree
with you, but this isn't the case.