@mstnorris He was saying that the quick start won't work and that it's outdated, so I pointed out that it will work if you use that version.

From a newcomer's perspective, I agree that it is misleading. When you somehow land on that page for version 4.2 and use the specified command

composer create-project laravel/laravel your-project-name --prefer-dist

you don't get version 4.2 but the current version instead.

Not everyone trying out Laravel is familiar with composer. So it might be worth to either add a note that the command always installs the current version or -even better- show a command that installs that specific version. Like it is done on http://laravel.com/docs/4.2/installation#install-laravel

composer create-project laravel/laravel {directory} 4.2 --prefer-dist

I agree that it would be good for a newcomer to immediately see that this is not the documentation for the current release without checking the version selector.

Poke Taylor Otwell and write some feedback about the site.

@skilche I disagree, if you think about it, why would the 4.2 docs say to specifically install it that way.

You wouldn't go to the Apple, Google, or Microsoft site and look at documentation for old versions of software and expect to see new additions to it stating that it is in fact old. Yes, some might do that, but you don't have to do much looking around to see that 5.1 is the latest version. I agree with everyone who says that it isn't obvious that 4.2 is old and 5.1 is the new version, but you can't blame Laravel for that if Google or whatever search engine is linking to old content. That is just the way search engines work.

@mstnorris Stay away from analogies, it's an easy think trap

@dgtlmoon I don't get you. Analogies are by far the easiest way to explain something technical or otherwise to someone who doesn't have any (or little) knowledge of the subject. What you said there is ridiculous. How can it be a trap?

So what's the final outcome here, did we agree that perhaps a 'deprecated' note on that page should happen? or it's pretty much my fault? happy to move - but if I can be of value to other newcomers through this experience it might add to the greater good

@mstnorris Because when I look at the documentation for a specific version and it contains installation instructions then I expect it to install exactly that version. Like I said before, the installation page does it correctly, just not the quick start page.

There are situations where you might want to install older versions. If it's outdated in the sense of "do not use this anymore", then remove the pages. If the pages still exist, people might want to install that version. And in that scenario the instructions should still be valid.

@skliche I can't argue with that. They of course can't be removed as Laravel 4 is still very heavily in use and yes, there may be times when you have to use that version because of other constraints so Taylor could do with updating the docs.

But

To come to the site as a "newcomer" and to blindly follow outdated instructions is silly. You take one look at the main Laravel.com site and/or a glance at Laracasts.com / Laracasts.com/discuss and you will see that Laravel 5.1 is the latest. No question.

3 pages of back and forth about the quickstart 4.2 page not mentioning that the installation steps install the 5.1 version

@dgtlmoon yeah, it's actually pretty funny. When I saw this thread and read the first couple of posts I have to admit that I didn't realize your point as well and just thought "well, you landed on the wrong page, buddy, get over it". But curiosity got me and I looked at those pages and that's when I just had to agree with you :-)

What if I wanted to follow the quickstart for 4.2 because I was stuck with an old project and wanted to quickly whip something up? It would still install the wrong version!

@dgtlmoon I agree with you on that one as I've already said; so, submit a pull request to the Laravel Docs.

1. Fork the repo.
2. Make your changes.
3. Submit a pull request.
4. Done. (They are pretty quick at accepting the proposed changes).