On SitePoint this morning, there's a new article from Harry Fuecks concerning a set of tools that sometimes goes unappreciated - the PEAR libraries.

From Getting Started with PEAR - PHP's Low Hanging Fruit:

The last time you built an application with PHP, how much time did you spend plumbing? "Plumbing?!?" you cry. "I was writing code, not fixing the drain!"

What I'm really talking about is this: in your last PHP project, how much time did you spend writing code that had been done before? Did you develop a complete user authentication system? How long did it take you to build that menu system? Did you struggle to send HTML emails with PHP? You know -- all those things that have been done time and again in PHP.

He jumps into the PEAR libraries with topics like: "Why pick PEAR? Keep the doctor away!", "A Short History: Of PEAR and confusion", "Installing PEAR: Get up and running", and "The Package Manager: Finding your way around".