All right, I think a lot of people are taking this question way too seriously. If you just want personal opinions for general situations, here's what this lowly monk typically does:

What is the ONE BEST way to query a database table and display it as a web page?

The Data::Table module:

use DBI;
use CGI ':standard';
use Data::Table;
use strict;

my $dbh = DBI->connect(...);
my $table = Data::Table::FromSQL(
             $dbh,
             "select * from mytable where myfield = ?",
             'whatever');
print header, start_html('Results'), $table->html;
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What is the ONE BEST way to identify a user?

Prompt for a user name and authenticate with a passsword if necessary. Or if you just want to guess at a userid, then you can look at the contents of the variable $< (see perlvar).

What is the ONE BEST way to create a web page?

The vim text editor.

Oh, you mean from within a Perl program? You can still write raw HTML code in a Perl program.

Or you could use the CGI module as I did earlier. I'll admit that this is what I typically do for dynamic web pages.

I'll also admit that when I'm creating tables I'll use the Data::Table or HTML::Table modules.

What is the ONE BEST way to edit a database record?

Assuming that you can use SQL, use it. Preferably via a DBI-like module:

$dbh->do("update table set blah = 'foo' where flurb = 'fleem'");
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What is the ONE BEST way to query a database?

This is one I refuse to touch. It depends on what you're doing with the results. Querying is always pretty easy. It's using the results that can be tricky...

buckaduck