Zend Framework’s Official PEAR Channel?
I’m sure this isn’t the first time this question has been asked but will Zend Framework ever be distributed via a PEAR channel? Some of you might try to point me to this non-Zend site claiming to do just that but it is falls a bit short. That site simply bundles all of ZF as a single package. Someone else may point me to this outdated article about an unofficial ZF PEAR channel. It too only distributes the entire ZF which begs the questions who really need the entire Zend Framework. More importantly why hasn’t Zend provided an official PEAR channel? In my search for an answer I found this response from “bkarwin”: No, we have no plans to offer ZF under a PEAR channel or other piece-by-piece distribution method. Assuming bkarwin was working in some half-official capacity at Zend I’d simply ask “Why not?”.
From Zend’s marketing standpoint I suppose bundling it all makes sense but it seams to me there is a good middle ground being missed. Why not create each ZF component as a separate PEAR package then have a single PEAR package called Zend Framework that simply lists all the individual ZF components as dependencies. It’s the perfect middle ground allowing us the ability to install all of ZF or just the parts we want to use.
To Zend’s credit ZF is very much community driven but the fact they don’t use PEAR as a packaging mechanism can send the unintended message that Zend may have a bit of the Not-Invented-Here (NIH) complex. I don’t believe that is the case but it’s hard not ponder that possibility. Greg Beaver and the many other great contributors to the core PEAR package which handles the building and management of PEAR packages have a great thing going and the fact ZF isn’t using it is a bit frustrating. Case in point, what happens in the even of security fixes for one ZF component? Currently you’d have to manually patch files or wait patiently for all of ZF to be rebundled. Why do that when you could patch the component and quickly publish the fix to the channel allowing us all to apply the fix with a simple command line?
So the question I have is why hasn’t Zend published an official ZF PEAR channel? What is it about the so-called piece-by-piece method of distribution model that is so wrong? Having built and setup our own PEAR channel here at the State of Iowa, I can attest this can be put in placed and managed fairly easily. Please help me understand why this isn’t a good idea.