The PEAR Installer Manifesto

This book is a comprehensive and well structured tutorial on using PEAR Installer, but it is also much more than that. As the creator of the latest versions of the PEAR Installer (1.4.0+) , the author is passionate about the benefits of a well managed development and deployment process. The book shows how the PEAR Installer works in detail, and then takes you through a comprehensive tour of how you can apply it all stages of the development lifecycle, with practical examples and advice throughout. It will build your technical skills and understanding, and also widen your perspective on managing an effective development process. The book is not just for PHP developers who want to understand how the PEAR Installer works, and what it can do for them, but more generally for PHP developers seeking a better way to deploy their applications and manage updates. It does assume that you have a good working knowledge of PHP development, and are dealing with projects of a sufficient scale and complexity to warrant an investment in a structure process.

Author Biography

Gregory Beaver has been one of the most active contributors to open-source PHP development since 2001. As the primary developer of important infrastructure software such as phpDocumentor, the PEAR installer, PHP_Archive, PHP_LexerGenerator, and PHP_ParserGenerator as well as co-lead of the Phar PHP extension, Gregory has helped to ease the development needs of PHP developers around the world. After he transformed phpDocumentor from a small project into the most advanced auto-documentation tools for PHP, phpDocumentor was voted second best PHP tool in Germany-based PHP Magazin’s 2003 Reader’s Choice awards list for best PHP application, and voted third best PEAR package (http://tinyurl.com/bn7pb). Currently, he is working to refactor the PEAR installer for PHP 6, as well as helping to lead the PEAR community forward. Gregory blogs about his programming escapades and other news on his blog, Lot 49 (http://greg.chiaraquartet.net). Gregory also leads a mysterious double life as the cellist of the internationally renowned Chiara String Quartet (http://www.chiaraquartet.net) with whom he tours the world. He lives in Lincoln, Nebraska where he is a full-time lecturer/artist-in-residence at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Hixson-Lied College of Fine Arts.