Github downloads?

You need to download a git client first.  For windows look for download github for windows on https://github.com.

Once you login using a browser, in the right side of the screen you'll see a button called "Download ZIP" (below "Clone in Desktop")

HTH,
Dan

Not interested in Git Client and the "Download Zip" button did not work the first two times I tried it.  I found a page that said to add '/zipball/master/' to the URL for the project page and that worked.  After that, the "Download Zip" button did work.  

Apparently, the "Download Zip" button only works if someone has already generated the file.  I had this problem a couple of weeks ago on a different project where the "Download Zip" button didn't do anything.

Worked for me tonight, on the first try.

On what project?  I suspect that the "Download Zip" button on PHPMailer will now work for the rest of the day or until they regenerate the package.  Like I said, this isn't the only project I've had this problem on where the "Download Zip" button didn't work.  And other people know about this since I was able to find it through Google.

Now what about Composer / Packagist ?  They appear to be just as obscure for downloads.

I'm the maintainer of PHPMailer.

Zip and tar.gz downloads are on the releases page - there are links for each tagged release version. There is one small issue (which I regard as a github bug) that the links on that page are in the order the tags were applied, not the releases they tag. The current release is 5.2.7, though right now I'd recommend using the master branch as it's in a near-release state and contains some worthwhile improvements. FWIW, the "download zip" button on the home page works fine for me.

What's not working with composer? You should add the package to your composer.json then just run composer install.

Good to meet you.  I can not find a link to the 'Releases' page on the main PHPMailer page or that's where I would have gone.  Didn't find such a thing on the other project I looked at a couple of weeks ago.  As for the "Download Zip" button, check it again after you do the next 'release' and see if it is still working then.  PHPMailer isn't the only project site I've had that not work on.

As for Composer, I never heard of it until last week and I don't have anything that currently uses it.  Or needs it for that matter.

Interesting.  That whole line, all 4 items, did not look like links to me.  It never occurred to me to click on any of them.  They just looked like info.  Now I know.

And complaining about it here got me exactly the info I needed about Github.  Thank you.

PHPMailer is a good project, I like it a lot although I have never used it for a client.  I would use it when plain PHP mail() doesn't work.  I have recommended it to several people who needed to login when sending email.

Thanks. I'd recommend to always avoid calling mail() yourself - pretty much all the code examples you'll find that use it are wrong in some way. There are an unbelievable number of overlapping RFCs that you have to bear in mind if you are doing things yourself, and it's really not easy at all (especially if you're using non-latin languages). Any decent wrapper class will take care of that - I'd also recommend SwiftMailer (more capable than PHPMailer, but much more complex) and Zend_Mail if you're using Zend framework.

I have my own mail() demo that has been posted here many times.  And all my work has been in American English which makes it very easy.  I have a copy of SwiftMailer that I have checked out for another question.  I tend to use the simplest version of anything that actually works.

Thanks.