Re: PEAR a way forward

Joshua Eichorn wrote: > 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. I agree. > 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 Having a better site, while not solving all problems, will be a big help. To me the major QA process we could have is to run unit tests, if there are some, automatically upon release. This would mean we need to standardize a way to do so, I believe having a run-tests.php in the tests directory should be sufficient). This would definitely be a good start. Other ideas (some we tried) include syntax checking (like the use of eval, not-escaped superglobals, etc). This means a package would have to have tests before going stable. > 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 We need to write down what we want to do :) > Create a new channel for packages that meet our updated guidelines > and CS We will have to come up with a name (pear2.php.net ?) > 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 We need to brainstorm a bit on that one. > 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 > Arnaud.