## Prerequisites

The following is list of prerequisites and assumptions needed for writing a PDO database driver:

1. A working target database, examples, demos, etc. working as per vendor specifications;

2. A working development environment:

   1. Linux: standard development tools, gcc, ld, make, autoconf, automake, etc., versions dependent on distribution;

   2. Other Unix: standard development tools supplied by vendor plus the GNU development tool set;

   3. Win32: Visual Studio compiler suite;

3. A working PHP environment version 5.0.3 or higher with a working PEAR extension version 1.3.5 or higher;

4. A working PDO environment (can be installed using 'sudo pecl install PDO'), including the headers which will be needed to access the PDO type definitions and function declarations;

5. A good working knowledge of the C programming language;

6. A good working knowledge of the way to write a PHP extension; George Schlossnagle's Advanced PHP Programming (published by Developer's Library, chapters 21 and 22) is recommended;

7. Finally, a familiarity with the Zend API that forms the heart of PHP, in particular paying attention to the memory management aspects.