package site information more dynamically updateable

[Joachim Schrod]

Ben Wing wrote:
> 
> yes, we should switch to an http package installation system. (really 
> really really; http is *much* more reliable than ftp these days and 
> works through firewalls consistently)

Just as a side note: I have code that adds http and ssh transport support to 
package installation. It's based on package*.el from 21.14-CVS and on 
functionality from package-transport.el by Steve that got posted here many 
months ago.

The code is upwards compatible to existing descriptions, to ensure that 
customized package-get-download-sites continues to work. It adds an optional 
fourth attribute to the download site description, the protocol that can be used 
to access the given site and directory. (Actually, one should and could use URLs 
as site specifiers, IMO. But that can be a later addition.)

Btw, the code does _not_ use the concept of Steve's package-transport.el that 
had a global variable that denotes the transport protocol. IMNSHO the transport 
protocol is associated with the site and is not a user preference. One could 
have a user preference that filters out all download sites which don't support 
the respective transport protocol, but that hasn't been implemented yet.

I haven't posted the code yet to xemacs-patches because it doesn't support http 
proxies yet, doesn't support http ports other than 80, there is a problem with 
overwrite semantics of copy-file, and I have to make more tests. Cleanup 
(comments) is needed, too. If somebody wants to see that 80%-ready code 
nevertheless, I can make it available, of course.

Cheers,
	Joachim

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Joachim Schrod				Email: jschrod at acm.org
Roedermark, Germany