With PHP4 Stig Stag Bakken introduced a new code repository for PHP extensions and PHP library code named "PEAR". PHP Extension and Add-On Repository. PEAR is not only a central place for quality assured library code but a milestone in the PHP developement.

PHP is a great web scription language but it lacks certain features that make PHP easy to use in a commercial enviroment. One feature is a central code repository for PHP library code (not C code, code written in PHP!) like CPAN is for Perl.

The availability of tested and reliable library code can be a major point in the decision for a certain language or against it. PHP knows PHPLib and it knows several other sites where you can get PHP snippets but it did not know a cental repository until version 4. Some realized soon which future rule PEAR could play and started to work on coding- and documentation guidelines. The discussion on the documentation guidelines took place in February 2000 on the php-pear and php-dev lists.

Most people voted for a Javadoc like documentation system but that time there was no product that:

• was written in PHP (expansion, ease of use, ...)
• suited the special PHP needs (OO, procedural, global, ...)

Special thanks to:

• Till Gerken, Pentap - lots of inspirations and suggestion on how procedural code can be documented
• Johann-Peter Hartmann, Mayflower Marketing - program design hints
• My girlfriend - which was not allowed to visit me in the week before the release (phpdoc is dedicated to her)