Versioning and dependencies are two features that every enterprise-level distribution system must support at a very high level. With both simple dependencies and advanced versioning features, the PEAR installer makes depending on external packages safer and easier than ever before.
The most basic foundation of the PEAR installer is the concept of versioning. Versioning should be familiar to all of us in the form of "Software package version X.Y.Z" such as "PHP version 5.1.4". The basic idea is that older versions of software have a lower number. In other words, PHP version 4.0.6 is older than PHP version 4.1.1beta1, which is older than PHP version 4.1.1.
How does versioning help track and eliminate bugs? Imagine this scenario:
You are working on a Wiki, and allowing users to grab the source from your FTP site at any time and use it themselves. One of them finds a bug and reports, "It is doing this weird thing where...
