massive release blitz: PEAR 1.4.0b1, PEAR_RemoteInstaller 0.1.0, PEAR_PackageFileManager 1.6.0a2, PHP_Archive 0.6.0

As of a few minutes ago, I finally released:

1. PEAR 1.4.0b1 - the first beta release of PEAR 1.4.0, feature frozen. This version passes all tests, and there is only one known issue having to do with a BC break in the XML parser in PHP 5.1
2. PEAR_RemoteInstaller 0.1.0 - this is a breakaway of the remote FTP installation procedure from the PEAR base package
3. PEAR_PackageFileManager 1.6.0a2 - fixes several issues discovered in 1.6.0a1
4. PHP_Archive 0.6.0 - full PHP 5.1+ requirement, streamlining and unit testing, much more functional

Those of you following the PEAR_ErrorStack issue may notice that it has not been split off from the rest of the package. This is because of a few rare reports of PEAR/ErrorStack.php not being installed with no error reported. This issue concerns me quite a bit because in this situation, the pear command would cease to function, which is a Bad Thing(TM).

Until this issue's cause it determined, it will not split off into its own package. I actually never could reproduce the problem, but one user managed to duplicate on unix and windows within 10 minutes doing the exact install sequence I asked him to do, so who knows.

This release of PEAR is a big deal. Feature-frozen PEAR means that after some time is allowed to fix any minor or major issues encountered, PEAR 1.4.0 stable is on the horizon.