Subject: New command-line syntax for package + version?

From: [email-masked] (Ludovic Courtès)
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 2015 15:07:58 +0100

Mathieu Lirzin <[email-masked]> skribis:

> In fact I think that having the same character for separating words and
> version is a design flaw.  This brings non desirable limitations when
> choosing a package name (as shown in this bug report) and/or requires a
> complex parsing algorithm.  We could use a reserved character instead
> (just like we do for multiple outputs).  My proposition would be to have
> ':' for versions and '/' for outputs, like this:
>
>   guile:1.8/doc
>   xterm-256-color:320
>   emacs:24.5/out
>
> WDYT?

I had to think a lot because that’s a big change (technically simple I
think, but it’s the change of UI and habits that’s bigger ;-)).  I came
to the conclusion that it’s probably a necessary thing.

Regarding the aesthetics, I’d be in favor of using @ for the version:

  [email-masked]
  [email-masked]:doc

I’m not sure if we should also allow:

  guile:[email-masked]

Thoughts?

Ludo’.