If someone is going to work on this, I'd recommend they look even more deeply
at what perl and python do. It is more than just "download over http"; there
are also issues of versioning among others.

Some of the things both those languages have, to greater or lesser degrees:

- there is a web site for humans with search and list, such as search.cpan.org

- there is a command line which does search, list, and install, such as 
"perl -MCPAN -e shell" or "ppm"
(ppm is more an activestate thing; CPAN.pm is distributed)
The install can deal with recursive dependencies if you want.

- the install utility can handle pure language packages, mixed language packages
with C source, and mixed language packages with pre-compiled C source
for one architecture (ppm is less flexible but simpler).

- really obscene things can be done with the perl "Inline" module: http://search.cpan.org/search?dist=Inline

- a single language install tree can handle a mixture of binary modules that vary by
architecture (i686-linux vs. MSWin32-x86-multi-thread) or by language version (5.005 vs. 5.6).
pure-language modules can vary by language version.
This is useful for multiple developers sharing a single install over NFS, or for
a single developer that is trying out multiple configurations.

- the language runtime does best effort when a package is asked for by name,
taking the "best-fit" one;
this prevents you having to upgrade all packages just because the language is
upgraded.

-mda


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