suggested syntax for channels

Hi, Since many channel names will be their hosts (this is always a good idea), I'm thinking it would be best to do channel/package ID like so: $ pear install Foo install of channel://pear.php.net/Foo 1.3.0 OK This uses default_channel $ pear install pear.php.net/Foo install of channel://pear.php.net/Foo 1.3.0 OK channel is explicit here, but there is a risk that a file named "pear.php.net/Foo" exists, so then you can do the full $ pear install channel://pear.php.net/Foo install of channel://pear.php.net/Foo 1.3.0 OK this also means $ pear install channel://user:pass@pear.php.net/Foo syntax becomes possible and parse_url is at our disposal It also means that if a channel is not found, rather than erroring out, an attempt to auto-discover can be made $ pear install pear.chiaraquartet.net/Foo Channel pear.chiaraquartet.net is not initialized, use "pear discover pear.chiaraquartet.net" to initialize this is assuming that pear.chiaraquartet.net/channel.xml exists and is a valid channel.xml $ pear install pear.chiaraquartet.net/Foo pear.chiaraquartet.net is not a valid channel this one is what users see if the channel.xml cannot be found. This also means that future options can be added as extra path arguments $ pear install channel://pear.chiaraquartet.net/Foo/group=Bar Since the thing is a url, it also means previously non-legal characters can be used as url-encoded values. secchannel:// could be used for channels that support SSL (or something like that, "secchannel" could be "secure" or "schannel" even). The only other adjustment needed is a new field in channel.xml for channel prefix. This field can be used to describe to users what class prefixes need to be, as well as what aliases can be used. <prefix>pear</prefix> this would allow $ pear install pear/Foo install of pear.chiaraquartet.net/Foo 1.3.0 OK If there is a conflict, a local re-assignment can be made by modifying the registry so that it was as if the original channel.xml had: <prefix local="my">pear</prefix> $ pear alias pear.chiaraquartet.net my now using "my" as the shortcut prefix for pear.chiaraquartet.net Greg