Is this a scam of some sort ?
I am evaluating PhpED so far, I have mostly evaluated it's "debugger" to be a huge wast of time.

I have copied plenty of DLL files, from diffent MySQL versions, trying different MySQL server versions... , all I get is the "usual" error about upgrading files.
I wasted more time, than I would on any old-time manual debugging.

Is this function supposed to work ? - if yes, why it's there are good step-by-step guides that tells how-to make it work ?

Still looking for a working debugger, I already got a good PHP editor, need at debugger, that I do not need to debug in order to make it work !

Dear AndreD, would you please shed some light onto why you are changing mysql dlls? They have absolutely no relation neither to php debugger nor to its ability to work. Please post more details on what you're doing and what particular errors you're getting.

I get "Client does not support authentication protocol requested by server; consider upgrading MySQL client in"

attempting to use MySQL with PHP 4.x

tried different php_mysqli.dll and libmysql.dll files, from different SQL versions, both newer SQL thnan I am using, the same, and latest SQL.
not knowing if the files are supposed to be backward-compatible, even looking for some SVN for another SQL server.

Right now, I "solved" my need for debugging in the old-fashion way. (lots of echo.) , but my CPU's can confirm that I've wasted more time trying PhpED to work, than I ever used on the problem itself.
Looking forward to a more reliable version, that can actually save me some work in the future.

Do you get this error in a php script where you call mysql_connect()?

This has nothing to do with the PhpED Debugger (which I have been using for YEARS now without problems). Take a look at the FAQ:
This is actually related to MySQL, they changed the authentication algorithms, causing problems with PHP4 connectivity if you don't upgrade the php-mysql libraries with a version supporting the new authentication. Look here for the FAQ entry.

if the error comes from php, AndreD has really nothing to do with it but change php itself.
Official win32 binaries of php version 4.x available from php.net web site (it's what we re-distribute with phped) can not work with mysql 4.1 or higher. Only php v5 can.

I see.
PHP 5 can connect to MySQL
annoying and confusing that PHP4 cannot do that, the error msg. should tell that.

The error message comes from the mysql binaries included with php4. There is no way for php4 or the older binaries to know that the MySQL authentication system has been changed in MySQL versions that were developed after these files were compiled. So the message gives you all information that is available for that specific situation.