How can adding the PEAR path to the system environment variables simplify the process of using PEAR commands in PHP development?

Adding the PEAR path to the system environment variables simplifies the process of using PEAR commands in PHP development by allowing you to run PEAR commands from any directory in the command line without specifying the full path to the PEAR executable.

// Add the PEAR path to the system environment variables
putenv("PATH=" . getenv("PATH") . PATH_SEPARATOR . "C:\path\to\pear");

// Now you can run PEAR commands from any directory
exec("pear install package_name");