Re: PEAR's mission statement - let the fun begin

Wants: 1. An official PEAR Wiki - everyone writes in there own Wiki including me. 2. As someone pointed out a clean up of the packages, but also split packages into CORE and SURPLUS so a clear distinction is made on what makes PEAR tick. Some packages have not updated for so long also these should be pointed out rapidly so the developers can be contacted and then the packages be given a deadline to meet or passed onto a new developer. 3. Individual posted as a category lead to watch over packages and developers within that category. The mission - As you asked just my ideas: 1. Friendly and accessible to even the newest developer - allow for accounts to be created by all (get email addresses for any marketing purposes) minimum permissions allow for comments on packages, and other little things - all the QA team then need to do is up the permission level to allow PEPr use. This will build community by making people think they are a part of something. I always felt a little bit awkward posting my ideas as I didn't even have an account. 2. Open discussion - merge Dev and General mail lists - This I think just adds to the elitist view some people have that PEAR is a group of developers just aimlessly working on packages for themselves, clearing away that with a clearly defined SUPPORT list will help, if no forum is going to be activated then this may help. Wikis / forum / collaboration tools. 3. Clear Hierarchy and Decision making - Need someone to be able to say no to someones idea, lack of response on an idea can be taken as a no but generally just annoys the idea creator. These ideas should be logged on Official WIKI and commented on and given final verdict. 4. Future proof - I have my own servers so as soon as PHP 6 will be released I will be installing this, most of the discussions are pointed at upgrading to PHP 5, maybe we should also start looking at PHP6 - I have no idea on release date but again just an idea. Read the comments on this post also for some things that may be addressed - looking at PEAR haters blogs will help, even though it may hurt to view. http://www.wormus.com/aaron/stories/2006/08/04/whats-wrong-with-pear.html Anyway some ideas - most I have stated before - but have been firebombed from the stratosphere but for clarity here they are again :) Regards Ian Warner Director Triangle Solutions Ltd Joshua Eichorn wrote:

Gregory Beaver wrote:

Hi everyone, I have asked Josh Eichorn, head developer of HTML_AJAX and co-head of PhpDocumentor to head up the start of an effort to clearly define PEAR's mission. At this point, we are simply at the stage of exploring ideas, a brainstorming session. Once all of the ideas are in a simple list, then a small task force will organize them, and attempt to prioritize them based on what you want, and what is possible with the current setup. Once we have a smaller list, it will be presented for discussion to all of you once again, hopefully resulting in a clear mission within the month. At this point I'll turn it over to Josh, and he will coordinate how we will gather your ideas. Thanks, Greg

I'll be grabbing the various items i've heard so far, but it would help a lot if people could reply to this message and post anything you'd like to see PEAR do or do better. These items can be anywhere from "make pear a leader in the PHP development community" to "make it quicker to get a pepr account" Concrete goals are always useful, but remember part of the goal of this is come up with a mission for PEAR that will help us decide which of the concrete goals are most important. Also note, I'm making a list not writing a book, please no rants and long messages try to keeps things a list. Your help, is much appreciated. -josh "What do you want PEAR to be" eichorn