channels

I've been playing with PEAR 1.4.0 (*waves to Greg*) and I've got a small concern with the introduction of channels. Channels are going to be awesome, but they also introduce a problem (in my not-so-humble opinion). I've been working on a MVC framework that will be released via a PEAR channel that has yet to be created. My package depends on pearified.com's Smarty template package. This isn't the issue I have though, the issue I have is that pearified's channel installs everything into "Pearified/". I would think Smarty should go into HTML/Template/Smarty or something like that. Is this something that's being mandated by PEAR (channel packages must go in $channelName/Package_Name)? It's not a huge issue I guess, but I wonder if we're creating a monster with channels in this regard. No longer will people have to follow CS, etc. They can just throw up their own channel and start releasing whatever they want (a good thing) with no oversight (a bad thing). My concerns also include support issues. I'm willing to bet some of the people who don't know much better will be asking for support from the PEAR lists for packages released via other channels - "Well, I installed it with PEAR". In marketroid speak this, I believe, is called "diluting the brand". Also, will the CS be updated to cover for cases where proposed PEAR packages rely on packages from other channels? Is it appropriate for a PEAR package to rely on a non-PEAR-channel package? I don't have strong feelings either way, but I do have concerns. Thoughts? --Joe -- Joseph C. Stump joe@joestump.net http://www.joestump.net