The process of PEAR's changes [was Re: wiki for PEAR]

David Coallier wrote: > Yeah but no one seems to want to discuss or actually try to organize > anything, I think we should defenatly talk about a plan of action but > everyone is taking the way they want.. This will not work well for PEAR if > we keep going like this, with 2-3 people deciding where we are going and no > one else knowing and just following like little rabbits.. We need to have a > general plan, an idea that we can all follow. Hi David, I am not sure I agree with this negative view of where things are going right now. For the first time, there is active talk about moving pear.php.net to a more powerful server, and it is likely to happen in the near future as a result. Several dormant developers are offering their opinions on where to go, and active developers have stepped up to fill in for roles previously occupied by Pierre (i.e. Arnaud, Martin). In addition, we are seriously contemplating some drastic changes to the way business is done in PEAR. Suggestions of moving to a wiki, or rewriting the website in PHP 5 and redesigning the look, doing a refactoring needs assessment have all been floated around. ...and all of this has happened in just over 48 hours! I also agree with your feeling about a general plan, but I strongly feel that this plan needs to be well thought-out, and only implemented when all the pieces are in place. PEAR has been relatively successful in the past 7 years, it would be wise to ensure we don't throw out the good things when eliminating the bad. I also very strongly agree that everyone needs to know the plan and have an opportunity to discuss/disagree with parts prior to its implementation. PEAR has not been very good in this area in the past. This is all the more reason to ensure that we've heard people's ideas and opinions. However, I don't think you are correct in saying that "everyone is taking the way they want." In reality, nothing has actually changed yet. Nobody has the physical power to make *any* changes to PEAR except for those who have karma to the PEAR Installer and the PEAR website. This includes me, Martin, Arnaud, Dan, and a whole slew of other culprits (you know who you are). These are the people who will actually implement these ideas. In addition, only Martin and I have shell access on the pearweb machine, which limits things further. As I said in a previous email, I would like to take the lead on organizing ideas. If there is a strong feeling that someone else is a better candidate, by all means, please step up to the plate. Here is my current plan for PEAR (minus obvious coding efforts): always: 1) keep the process clear and obvious - if you feel like you don't know what is going on and who is making decisions, I'm failing in this regard, let me know right away. short term: 1) obtain feedback for a week or so, considering *all* ideas with any merit. 2) work hard on getting better hardware for pear.php.net long term: 3) help to coordinate the efforts active developers so we're working with each other 4) help to coordinate efforts to restructure PEAR's political design #4 is of crucial importance that it be done right on the first try, if possible. I'd hate to see pear-dev disintegrate into a muddle of flame wars over nothing. :) As such, I am collecting ideas people have proposed and will be attempting to get things organized into a single easy-to-browse document ASAP. Thanks, Greg