title: Replacement for PEAR: MDB2 on PHP 5.3
body: <p>I've been using pear packages in php for years.  I'm in the process of upgrading/moving a sites that uses the MDB2 pear package and it has not been updated for PHP 5.3.X.</p>
  
  <p>In 5.3, MDB2 is returning those new annoying errors.</p>
  
  <pre><code>Unknown: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /usr/local/lib/php/MDB2.php on line 390
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I know I can change my error reporting settings to get rid of them, but I'd rather not make any exceptions.  Anyway,  Is anyone else using MDB2 these days and have a solution?  Are there similar database packages you recommend? </p>