Topic on Manual talk:Pre-commit checklist

The following comments where put in inline comments by several editors, I've moved them here:

1. Is each use of fopen(), fread(), etc. checked for errors or problems?
   • does this mean that there is error handling?
2. If you've created a new function, have you documented its parameters and what it returns?
   • need to note where this should be documented
3. Have you used the proper output functions? echo should almost never be used.
   • where do we find this info? needs link. not in coding conventions
4. Have you use the proper termination functions? exit should almost never be used.
   • where do we find this info? needs link. not in coding conventions
5. * Where appropriate, have you used the MediaWiki wrapper functions instead of their PHP equivalents?
   • where do we find this info? needs link. not in coding conventions
6. wfIniGetBool() instead of ini_get to get boolean params
   • it doesn't seem that the various wf* functions are documented

This actually relates to a comment I just made on IRC. For first-timers, it might be good to give explanations / additional info about some (most?) of the items on the list, but most developers won't need the information after that. So, I'd like to find some way of catering to both audiences. I'm currently pondering a table version (first column: short regular checklist, second column: explanations) vs. a two-list version (short regular checklist above, same checklist with explanations below). I'd like to hear ideas / preferences / alternatives.

By the way, global functions are documented here: http://svn.wikimedia.org/doc/GlobalFunctions_8php.html#_details (Functions are below the constants)