> Hi,
> 
> many package authors (at least 39) assume that if they write the 
> following, the distfiles are downloaded into ${DISTDIR}/package-1.0. But 
> they are wrong.
> 
> PKGNAME=          package-1.0
> PKGREVISION=      4
> DIST_SUBDIR=      ${PKGNAME}
> 
wouldn't the correct way be

DISTNAME=package-1.0
PKGREVISION=        4
DIST_SUBDIR=        ${DISTNAME}

is there any situation where the above could not work as intended?

I would rather be caution with introducing heaps of new variables.
To me this has the potential of adding more confusion.

I think it is often a problem of documentation. If a clear defintion
was easily accessible people would less frequently use variables in an
incorrect way.
If you figure out that some packages currently do it wrong I suggest the
best way would be to correct these.

-- 
Georg Schwarz    http://home.pages.de/~schwarz/
 georg.schwarz@freenet.de  +49 178 8545053