[FIXED] What is PEAR most appropriately used for

Issue

I can't wrap my head around PEAR or its usages. There is also some talk about its maintainability, so I think a better way to help me gauge what sub-components of my programs I could need it for is to ask what others have used it for. What did you use PEAR for and it was a good choice? and what did you consider using it for but eventually settled on something else and why? I'm looking for specific examples please like "I had an error reporting page that sent mail and was considering using PEAR::Mail" or something like that.

Thank you all.

Solution

"PEAR" isn't something in and of itself, it is a repository of a bunch of different extensions that other people have written.

If you need some basic authentication in your PHP application, go to http://pear.php.net/ and search for authentication. Now you have a list of plugins you can use to get the desired outcome.

There's a plugin for mostly anything you could need to do. PEAR isn't either good or bad, each plugin inside the repository is good or bad, so it's up to you to see if the plugin works well for you.

January 2018 Edit

Since the writing of this answer, Composer has become the de facto package management solution for PHP. I recommend you try to find a relevant package via Composer before looking at Pear for solutions.

Answered By - Mike Trpcic

Answer Checked By - Gilberto Lyons (PHPFixing Admin)