PEAR a way forward

I believe that PEAR is a turning point, both in it's organization and development, and in it's continued position as a leader in the php developer community. PEAR has never had a written goal. Instead the many developers simply followed their own paths with their own agendas, but this means PEAR doesn't have the momentum and power that a single mission statement would provide. The idea of open source is many people working together to create a superior project, a project that is greater then what any one person could create on their own. What I propose is a new goal for PEAR implemented along side our upgrades to the website an infrastructure. I think that pear needs to move forward, pushing the limits of what PHP can do while providing solid, forward looking classes for use in any php application. Pear should try to be the base that php developers can stand on, while also providing niche classes that do really cool things. The lack of a cohesive goal has also meant that PEAR is often filled with bickering and politics, instead of being a solid community that is supportive and committed to forwarding php usage and developer skills. I think pear can accomplish a rejuvenation - both in the code and in the mind of the community - by focusing on several aspects 1. The Code: Creating a QA Process that actually works Updating the CS guidelines to apply to PHP 5 features Continuing to refine how we use PEPR Changing the package life-cycle so that packages get feedback and review past there initial proposal 2. The Infrastructure Update the website Create a new channel for packages that meet our updated guidelines and CS Finding a way for similar packages to exist without creating a proliferation of slightly different APIs (template engines, db layers, etc) Removing confusion in package organization and naming (What do thing in the PHP group do, what does a package named PEAR do) 3. The Community Mission statement Rules of conduct for representation on irc, mailing lists, A marketing campaign Re-Brand PEAR so people know we've made changes and that we still apply to the PHP world of today -josh