In jettero's recent post, STDERR, he was attempting to solve a problem that wasn't really a problem. Or, in short, his own answer to his problem was a singular effective solution which may introduce further problems if a case exists where he doesn't want to have a certain action associated with warnings. Admittedly, he can simply override the action and restore it after he handles the warning in the other manner. But it got me to thinking if this was a good way to handle it.

I was actually asked by footpad to take a look at the thread and to see if any good answers had been posted (most notably his :). That's why I posted Re: STDERR. I felt that in the overwhelming rush to find an answer, everybody overlooked the fact that the warnings were being produced from failed database statements via the DBI. Furthermore, the DBI already has mechanisms in place to handle errors (and this is where my answer came from).

So, I think the questions I want to ask are as follows:

• If you select a module as the way you're going to do it, have you effectively chosen to limit yourself, in regards to the task the module performs, of the ways by which you attempt to solve your tasks?
• What takes precedent, the API defined by the module or the spec which says do X with all errors? In essence, I tend to use the $DBI::errstr when it is populated to determine action, but why aren't there hooks in the connect string to allow overridden exceptions? (rhetorical question...)

What do/have you thought about the self imposed restrictions when using well defined modules with good APIs? Is it always necessary to follow the rules? Is it better to follow just in case you forget why you broke them?

ALL HAIL BRAK!!!

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