[Rd] Can DESCRIPTION Maintainer: field contain general URL instead of only email address?

[William Dunlap]

Our firm would like to route support requests through
a website instead of using email.  However R will refuse
to install a package if DESCRIPTION's Maintainer field
does not have a valid email adress or the special value
"ORPHANED".  (The check is done with
tools:::.valid_maintainer_field_regexp.)

I imagine a typical Maintainer line for the package "foo"
might be something like
   Maintainer: Amalgamated Widget's Support Team
<http://support.amalgamatedwidgets.com/spackage?name=foo>

How much does the package system (or CRAN) depend on
the Maintainer field being an email address?  I can imagine
programs would find mailing to an address easier than
dealing with a website, but humans would have a better experience
with a well designed website.  Perhaps we could add an optional
%s field to the website so a program could post a small message.

Bill Dunlap
TIBCO Spotfire Inc.
wdunlap tibco.com