That's not an OO issue - it's the fact that Perl doesn't have return types. In Java and C++, you have to declare the return type for a given function. Perl doesn't do that, so it can return whatever it wants. (q.v. wantarray for more fun and games.)

Now, many OO purists would say that you shouldn't be doing things like that. Instead, I would suppose they'd argue you should do something more like this: 

Foo foo = new Foo;
foo->retrieve( 1 );
foo->method1();

[download]
That would be Java or C++ syntax. (It's kinda scary how similar they look ...) All the methods would have a void return type, meaning that the object stayed encapsulated.

*shrugs* Reason #237908 I choose to program in Perl, I guess ...

Being right, does not endow the right to be rude; politeness costs nothing.
Being unknowing, is not the same as being stupid.
Expressing a contrary opinion, whether to the individual or the group, is more often a sign of deeper thought than of cantankerous belligerence.
Do not mistake your goals as the only goals; your opinion as the only opinion; your confidence as correctness. Saying you know better is not the same as explaining you know better.

In reply to Re: perl, Class::DBI and OO for dynamic languages by dragonchild
in thread perl, Class::DBI and OO for dynamic languages by johnnywang

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