WHAT IT IS

  It's a tool for automatically creating the basic framework for a PHP module
  and writing C code handling arguments passed to your functions from a simple
  configuration file. See an example at the end of this file.

HOW TO USE IT

  Very simple. First, cd do directory ext/ in PHP 4 sources. If you just need
  the basic framework and will be writing all the code in your functions
  yourself, you can now do './ext_skel your_module_name' and everything you
  need is placed in directory your_module_name. In fact, if you don't need to
  test the existence of any external header files, libraries or functions in
  them, the module is already almost ready to be compiled in PHP. Just remove
  3 comments in your_module_name/config.m4, cd back up to PHP sources top
  directory, and do './buildconf; ./configure --enable-your_module_name; make'.

  But if you already have planned the overall scheme of your module, what
  functions it will contain, their return types and the arguments they take
  (a very good idea) and don't want to bother yourself with creating function
  definitions and handling arguments passed yourself, it's time to create a
  function definitions file, which you will give as the second argument to 
  ext_skel.

FORMAT OF FUNCTION DEFINITIONS FILE

  All the definitions must be on one line. In it's simplest form, it's just
  the function name, ie.

    my_function

  but then you'll be left with an almost empty function body without any
  argument handling.

  Arguments are given in parenthesis after the function name, and are of
  the form 'argument_type argument_name'. Arguments are separated from each
  other with a comma and optional space. Argument_type can be one of int,
  double, string, array, object or mixed.

  An optional argument is separated from the previous by an optional space,
  then '[' and of course comma and optional space, like all the other
  arguments. You should close a row of optional arguments with same amount of
  ']'s as there where '['s. Currently, it does not harm if you forget to do it
  or there is a wrong amount of ']'s, but this may change in the future.

  An example:

    my_function(int arg1, int arg2 [, int arg3 [, int arg4]])

  Arguments arg3 and arg4 are optional.

  If possible, the function definition should also contain it's return type
  in front of the definition. It's not actually used for any C code generating
  purposes but PHP in-source documentation instead, and as such, very useful.
  It can be any of int, double, string, bool, array, object, resource, mixed
  or void.

  The file must contain nothing else but function definitions, no comments or
  empty lines.

CURRENT LIMITATIONS AND BUGS

  Only arguments of types int, float, string and array are handled. For other
  types you must write the code yourself. And for type mixed, it wouldn't even
  be possible to write anything, because only you know what to expect.
  
  It doesn't yet handle correctly grouped optional arguments, ie. it thinks
  'type function(type arg1 [, type arg2, type arg3]' to actually be 
  'type function(type arg1 [, type arg2 [, type arg3]]', so you have to
  manually correct the switch construct created. But it's nothing more than
  deleting a few 'case ?:' lines and fixing PHP in-source documentation proto.

EXAMPLE

  The following _one_ line

  bool my_drawtext(resource image, string text, resource font, int x, int y [, int color])

  will create this function definition for you (note that there are a few
  question marks to be replaced by you, and you must of course add your own
  value definitions too):

/* {{{ proto bool my_drawtext(resource image, string text, resource font, int x, int y[, int color])
    */
PHP_FUNCTION(my_drawtext)
{
	zval **image, **text, **font, **x, **y, **color;
	int argc;
	int image_id = -1;
	int font_id = -1;
	???LS_FETCH();

	argc = ZEND_NUM_ARGS();
	if (argc < 5 || argc > 6 || zend_get_parameters_ex(argc, &image, &text, &font, &x, &y, &color) == FAILURE) {
		WRONG_PARAM_COUNT;
	}

	ZEND_FETCH_RESOURCE(???, ???, image, image_id, "???", ???G());
	ZEND_FETCH_RESOURCE(???, ???, font, font_id, "???", ???G());

	switch (argc) {
		case 6:
			convert_to_long_ex(color);
			/* Fall-through. */
		case 5:
			convert_to_long_ex(y);
			convert_to_long_ex(x);
			/* font: fetching resources already handled. */
			convert_to_string_ex(text);
			/* image: fetching resources already handled. */
			break;
		default:
			WRONG_PARAM_COUNT;
	}

	php_error(E_WARNING, "my_drawtext: not yet implemented");
}
/* }}} */