This book is a comprehensive and well structured tutorial on using PEAR Installer, but it is also much more than that. As the creator of the latest versions of the PEAR Installer (1.4.0+) , the author is passionate about the benefits of a well managed development and deployment process. The book shows how the PEAR Installer works in detail, and then takes you through a comprehensive tour of how you can apply it all stages of the development lifecycle, with practical examples and advice throughout. It will build your technical skills and understanding, and also widen your perspective on managing an effective development process. The book is not just for PHP developers who want to understand how the PEAR Installer works, and what it can do for them, but more generally for PHP developers seeking a better way to deploy their applications and manage updates. It does assume that you have a good working knowledge of PHP development, and are dealing with projects of a sufficient scale and complexity to warrant an investment in a structure process.