I think it has something to do with the number of paragraphs.
They probably have a certain number of characters per page or something then use the pid to show a certain range of content from where the article is stored in a database.
I hadn't thought of that, actually. I'll check if it is. But I would rather get a reply from someone that works on the database. Matt would definately know that, but Wayne or Kevin might also know the reason.
Could someone please explain me this: How does the "pid" thingy work in the article pages in SitePoint? I have noticed it controls the pages that it is meant to show of the article, but why does it jump so many numbers between the pages? Take this as an example: http://www.webmasterbase.com/article...id=228&pid=876 jumps to http://www.webmasterbase.com/article...id=228&pid=883 when you click the button in the bottom of the page. How does it work and why is it like that?
I've done a lot of work on improving the PHP code associated with articles on SitePoint over the last couple of months.
As LuZer guessed, it's the number of paragraphs. Although each article is stored as one long block of text in the database, it gets broken up into paragraphs by article.php3 before being displayed. The main reason for this is to let us associate an image with a paragraph (to have it appear in the margin)... although this is a capability we don't use too often.
Just for the record. I do not work on the Sitepoint site. My only jobs here are to help maintain the forums with Eric and to moderate chat when I have time.
I get it now! An easy way to find out how it works is to go to an article page and increase the pid=number to one number higher and notice how the higher the number is the more text is 'eaten up'. It was all so simple!
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks