[Dbix-class] Scalar ref update()'s

[Ash Berlin]

On 16 May 2008, at 18:24, Jose Fonseca wrote:

> > To reiterate, if scalar-ref update() behaved like that, we'd be
> > protecting users from doing things like this:
>
> >  $cd->update({ last_played => \'NOW()' });
> >  print $cd->last_played;
>
> The word "protect" is, in my opinion, not the right one here. It's  
> not about protecting the user, but about doing *the right thing*.  
> Reason with me : what sense does returning a reference to 'NOW()'  
> make in Perl?
>
> I think that, since the user CHOSE to use a scalar ref, he WANTS a  
> round trip to the RDMBS. Otherwise that returned statement is not  
> wriiten in Perl(it's SQL), why should it be returned as a value that  
> can't be used in Perl at all?

Often I do an update then you discard the obj so dont actually care  
about the round trip/actual value.

>
>
> A technical solution would involve what Ash called "too much magic",  
> and I sort of agree**. Also keeping it in 2 functions would keep the  
> system well decoupled instead of bloating it up(TMM again).
>
> Unless I'm totally missing something, I think the new function could  
> be as short as
>
> sub update_and_refresh {
>          my $self = shift;
>          $self->update();
>          $self->discard_changes();
> }
>
> So it's not a really painful solution really.

Yes, that'd do it

>
>
> ** The reason I don't agree completely is that, as explained above,  
> returning the scalar ref does not make any sense at all in update().  
> In my opinion if we create a 2nd function, we should throw an  
> immediate exception when update is used with a scalar ref value to  
> force it to break early and let the developer know it's being used  
> incorrectly. In my case I just wrote that code assuming I'd get the  
> date back because that scalar ref has nothing to be doing in my Perl  
> code.