Step 2: Initiating a discussion

Before starting the proposal process in PEPr, a thread should be started for each new package on the developers mailing list. This intermediate step is preferred for the sake of convenience, because it is easier and more comfortable for us to hit a single key in our mail client to join a discussion than to open a browser window and look up the right page on the website.

By discussing the package with the PEAR developers you will easily be able to find out if:

• there are technical issues with the package/code

• a package with similar functionality already exists

• there are people working on something similar, so you can join forces

• etc.

By reading between the lines, you should also be able to find out if you will be able to gather enough positive votes in the formal proposal process.

Be aware that people will scrutinize your code, so be prepared for criticism (both positive and negative) and save everybody a bunch of time by making sure your scripts adhere to the Coding Standards. Also please note that PEAR is an international project, with people coming from different cultural backgrounds. Because of that most people in the community are not native english speakers. Do not worry if your English is not perfect and, most importantly, be aware that sometimes misunderstandings may happen. It is important that everybody involved tries to be as clear as possible.

Once you feel that you have addressed all questions/suggestions/critics raised during the mailing list discussion, you can go ahead with starting the formal PEPr process.