That post was for a different layout back in November. The widget has been removed.

Also, you hate the awful layout/theme but inwardly you like the 'pop' that examples and function declarations have, don't you?

I don't know what you mean by "pop." Are you referring to the coloring switch where the examples have an actual white background, while the rest of the content is light gray? Because personally, I find reading dark gray (#333) on light gray (#f2f2f2) is less readable than simply #fff on #000.

Lacking a better place, I'll leave this feedback:

1. The list of functions for a class should be on the left side, not the right. The left side is where the (rest of) the navigation is, and having this one navigation element in a completely different place makes the site less usable.

2. I seem to recall the navigation tree being larger and more prominent (and therefore, easier to find and click on).

3. Overall, there just seems to be a lot of wasted whitespace (grayspace?) in the new layout. Compare http://www.php.net/manual/en/datetime.modify.php to http://web.archive.org/web/20110717093525/http://www.php.net/manual/en/datetime.modify.php. So much more information fits in the browser window with the earlier layout. The blocks of color serve to separate logical areas of the document.

I mean, don't get me wrong, the new layout is certainly "modern." It looks as though it just walked out of someone blog or WordPress site, but I don't think that's what you were going for. (Or is it?)

Blog post you have mentioned was related to much bigger revolution few months ago. We basically replaced our old theme existing since 90's. I'm not sure what changes you consider to be a new layout. You can always provide us some feedback via php-webmaster@lists.php.net. Just, please, make it more constructive than just word "awful".

Regards,
Maciej.

Thanks for that comparison tuxedobob it shows exactly why my own situation is so badly affected by these changes. The colours are only part of the problem. I use a desktop which covers two monitors and normally have the 'help' screens on the left, so on the old setup the navigation was nicely out of the way on the left, but now it's twice as wide slap bang in the middle. Swapping screens over does not work because I just get a blank grey area instead ... even after disabling the site font for a wider profile one.