Regarding Class::DBI, I guess it depends on whether you believe that the module is providing object persistence, or transparent access to SQL-based records. If the latter, the current scheme makes perfect sense: you want your objects to have accessors for every column. If the former, then it's definltely broken for the same reason I made my comment up the thread. And most people seem to be using it for the latter, so that's why it's so successful. {grin}