The $ notation was just an example for my description of my alias
proposal. I'd have to thing about boundary cases a little bit more, but
it might be possible to omit any punctuation as some folks have
suggested.

I admit I am nudging toward LDAP for another reason: another suggestion
for InterBase that I have heard from time to time is to allow IBServer
to take user/password configuration from an operating system directory,
instead of isc4.gdb. LDAP is often used for user directories (e.g.
NDS).

My broader vision is to allow an LDAP server to provide an
enterprise-wide user _and_ database directory.

All optionally, of course. There's no reason to disable current
InterBase features. But it would be nice to enable other mechanisms.

Regards,
Bill Karwin