This table compares PEAR and ZZ/OSS Installer. On that basis, developers can decide, which tool better suits their needs.
As ZZ/OSS Installer is designed to install applications composed of PEAR-like packages, it has some clear advantages over PEAR Installer in this regard.
The PEAR Group has announced a new standard on version naming. ZZ/OSS will adopt it in total and future releases of our software will be compatible with the proposed standard.
Slowly, but steadily, the PEAR Group sets basic and very necessary standards for PHP software development. Have a look at all Administrative Documents released so far. ZZ/OSS regards all of them as guidelines for professional PHP coding and we fully support them.
The PEAR group recently published New Guidelines for BC breaking releases. The idea is simple, for example one variant would be:
Old API: MyPackage-1.2.tgz
New API: MyPackage_2-0.9.tgz
… is the question of a current thread being discussed on pear-dev. Discussion mainly circles around “forking” PEAR to make a PEAR2 which might break BC to previous packages, run on PHP5 only, etc. Some quotes:
Stopping in the middle to start new isn’t the best way I think. (Daniel Khan)
Having PEAR 2 is basically the same like the Ferrari F1 Team changing the motor, because the mechanicians aren’t working properly. (Martin Jansen)
The main problem i saw in PEAR since the begining wasnt technical, was as someone said, managerial. I can name a lot of good technical companies/technologies that disappear even being the best option in the
market. Betmax is classical, Netscape is the new one. PEAR? Will not make a big wave if it disapPEAR, looking at the current state of affairs. (S. Rocha)
What actually prevents us from creating a new pear to even better handle upgrade to PHP5 and repair some definite technical issues, etc.? (Tobias Schlitt)
“You heard that? PEAR was so broken they had to start it all over! I am not touching the thing with a 10 feet pole!” (Alexey Borzov)
Personally, I would love to see a new start with packages that consequently use PHP5’s OO features. Who really cares about the PHP4 OO features once he knows what PHP5 can do? Hence, who really cares about the old PEAR if there’s a PEAR for PHP 5? As PHP4 OO is not the best choice for mission critical projects, anyone seriously doing OO with PHP in the future, will use PHP5 and related packages from the new PEAR.
via pear-dev
Greg started a discussion question about PEAR vs. Zzoss installer on the pear-dev Mailinglist. I just realized it by chance because I unsubscribed myself from the list before my holidays. Now I am back, but too busy with work. Greg and Stefan, thanks so far for bringing up the topic! I hope, the ideas developed at ZZ/OSS can help improving the PEAR package manager and we all can profit from it. As soon as I have some time left, I will devote it to the installer project.
There’s now more documentation online[1] for PEAR, covering several PEAR packages and PECL extensions.
Finally, the PEAR Package Manager works on Windows. Check out the PEAR Weekly News [1] for more information.
It seems like Christian Stocker found a way to raise the reputation of the PEAR class library project with his recent proposal: “I made a proposal to the pear-dev mailinglist about PEAR Foundation Classes (aka PFC). The main idea behind it is to provide some kind of badge to well-established, well-reviewed, well-written and well-documentated code within PEAR.” Find more information at Christian’s blog entry.
Sandro Groganz is the founder of InitMarketing, the open source marketing company. Prior to founding InitMarketing, he was the VP Marketing at Mindquarry, an open source startup financed by Hasso Plattner Ventures, and the VP Communication at eZ Systems, creator of the open source content management system eZ Publish.
