What are the potential pitfalls of using sparsely documented functions like imagefttext() in PHP and how can developers mitigate them?

Using sparsely documented functions like imagefttext() in PHP can lead to difficulties in understanding how the function works, what parameters it expects, and what values it returns. This can result in errors, unexpected behavior, and time-consuming debugging. To mitigate these pitfalls, developers should refer to the official PHP documentation, experiment with the function in a controlled environment, and test thoroughly before deploying it in a production environment.

// Example of using imagefttext() with proper documentation and testing

// Set the font file path
$font = 'arial.ttf';

// Set the text to be written
$text = 'Hello, World!';

// Set the font size
$size = 24;

// Set the angle
$angle = 0;

// Set the x and y coordinates
$x = 10;
$y = 50;

// Set the color
$color = imagecolorallocate($image, 255, 255, 255);

// Write the text on the image
imagefttext($image, $size, $angle, $x, $y, $color, $font, $text);