Driver Based Object Creation - string vs class

[Scott Penrose]

Hey Guys,

I started a thread of conversation at the pub around how to do driver 
based object creation.

I am sure that you have all used or at least heard of DBI, our favorite 
database interface module.

The way you currently create a database handle with DBI is to do the 
following:

	use DBI;
	my $dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:Pg:database=fred', ...);

But the designers could easily have done the following...

	use DBI::Drv::Pg;
	my $dbh = DBI::Drv::Pg->connect(database => 'fred', ...);

So I started talking about where you would used each of these 
representations.

We came up with the basic following guidelines.

1) Use String Based

	. Configuration file storage of a driver
	. User input for driver
	. Customisation depending on platform (eg: Windows vs Linux vs 
FreeBSD etc)
	. Command line input

2) Use Class Based

	. Choosing a driver that does not change except with code changes

So we came up with some examples....

1) String Based

	The following examples should allow you to write code that works 
with any of the drivers supported by the infrastructure

	. Database (type as well as name and host etc)
		= If you are careful you can construct most your code to be DB 
independent
		  (where you can't you should consider using DBIx::Abstract or 
many others)
	. Email
		= You write a script to delete mail based on some strange 
criteria, and you
		  need to choose which folder type (Mh, MBox, MailDir, POP, 
IMAP, WebDAV ...)

2) Class Based

	The following examples would probably require code changes to 
change the driver and therefore it is ok to use class based.

	. Net::Server:: Personality choices
		= You write a preforked server which blocks when processing a 
connection.
	. IO::Socket::*
		= Using TCP sockets vs Unix Domain Socks etc
		  often this will change the way you deal with things (not 
much mind you)

I am presenting this to you to: get some feedback if you want; to 
present the conclusions we came up with on Wednesday.

:-)

Scott
--
Scott Penrose
Welcome to the Digital Dimension
http://www.dd.com.au/
scottp at dd.com.au

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