The History of PEAR, PHP's First Package Manager
Oct 13 - Oct 20, 2026
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In this issue
- The History of PEAR, PHP's First Package Manager
- PHP Social Network Built Live in 48 Hours With JetBrains Air
- Automattic Applies for a .php Top-Level Domain
- PHP 8.7 RFC: Comments and Trailing Commas in json_decode()
16 community links · 3 RFC votes open · 1 RFC decided · 2 new RFCs · 3 upcoming events
The full story of PEAR, from a 1999 commit to PHP's bundled installer, Composer, the 2019 breach, and the 2026 vote to end PHP's endorsement.
More this week
Community
Nuno Maduro, Brent Roose, and Matthieu Napoli are building a social network for developers in PHP and Laravel, live on YouTube fro...
Community
WordPress parent Automattic filed for a .php TLD in ICANN's 2026 round. Here's how the application works.
PHP Core
A new PHP 8.7 RFC adds two opt-in flags that let json_decode() and json_validate() accept // and /* */ comments and a trailing com...
RFC Watch
Voting now
23 yes, 0 no. Voting closes October 22.
New proposal
Makes ini_get_all() accept extension names in any letter case, as extension_loaded() and phpversion() already do.
New proposal
Adds JSON_ALLOW_COMMENTS and JSON_ALLOW_TRAILING_COMMAS flags so json_decode() and json_validate() accept comments and a final comma.
Around the web
Most of Your API Has Already Been Designed · Community
Guzzle 8.3.0 · Package
Atelier SVG - PHP vector toolkit · Package
PHP Tek 2027 Call For Speakers Closes Soon · Community
SymfonyCon Warsaw 2026: Green Is Not Done · Community
Concurrent Console Progress · Package
New in PHP 8.6: Polling API · Tutorial
Launching PHP News with Eric Barnes · Community
How the PHP Security Team Handles Your Reports · Community
Upcoming events
Oct 27
International PHP Conference Munich 2026 · Holiday Inn Munich
Nov 4
Laracon AU 2026 · QUT Gardens Theatre
Nov 12
CMS Conf 2026 · PPNT Gdynia
Independent coverage of the PHP language, its ecosystem and the people building it.
Written by PHP developers, for PHP developers