Recently, I have been extremely active in helping to plan PEAR's future, and I have to say if you haven't noticed, things are hopping. Several significant contributions have also been made to the effort by established developers as well as several new developers who emerged from the woodwork. If you wish to see who is doing what, the pear-dev mailing list is a good place to start.
Most important on the list of improvements has been an upgrade of the hardware (thanks Martin) behind the nerve center of PEAR, pear.php.net's website. Thanks to pair Networks, we have super-fast hardware running now. This has allowed dreaming to happen that was not possible before.
Some of the exciting dreams that have already come to fruition:
- PEAR now only accepts new packages that are PHP 5+ (existing packages will not change)
- documentation coverage maps have already helped to increase the documentation (although a long ways to go remains)
- bug statistics on package homepages have significantly lowered the number of open bugs from 600ish to 400ish
Of course, I have not mentioned some of the minor but fun additions such as the most popular downloaded packages on the homepage, package download statistics being re-enabled, and David Coallier/Christian Weiske's recent addition of google mapping of where PEAR developers reside, but these are good as well.
On this list of major improvements yet to come:
- upgrade the bug tracker to allow roadmaps, and improve ease of use/robustness
- decide on a concrete governing structure for PEAR
- decide how PEAR 2.0 will work and what it even means
The last of these is of course the most important, and will be a collaboration between the installer and others. It will also mean determining what PEAR should be about, and this means a major shift is possible. I listed the others because without some kind of roadmapping capability, there is no way to document these requirements, and without a concrete governing structure, there is no way to make decisions in any kind of timely manner.
This is where you come in. I recently completed the beta-testing of PEAR's new election interface. This interface is a secret ballot voting system that will allow registered voters to help decide the outcome of PEAR's future. Most of the important decisions I mentioned will be decided by a general election, meaning that the users of PEAR, not just the developers, will have a voice in the direction PEAR decides to take.
Note: if you are already a PEAR developer, you are already registered to vote. Accounts created for PEPr simply need to request voting karma (email pear-dev@lists.php.net to request voting karma).
How, you might ask, do I register to vote? Simple. Go on over to http://pear.php.net/account-request-vote.php and fill out the simple form. It will email you with a confirmation link. Visit this website, and you will be able to log in to vote in elections.
The first election will be to choose between several bug trackers, and I anticipate that the next will be to choose which of several possible directions PEAR could take is most important to you, so these are major decisions. If you use PHP, and want to see the standard package repository fit your needs, you will want to take a moment to register to vote. Registration is open all of the time, but you can only vote in active elections - once it's closed, you can't vote.
Register to vote, and tell your friends and colleagues that if they want to see their PHP life get even easier to do the same and have a voice in PEAR's future. Feel free to use this post as a template for blog posts/mailing list emails/whatever.
