I see these OO wrapper modules as more like using CGI.pm's HTML generation functions instead of writing webpages in HTML. They aren't about separating Perl and SQL. They're about replacing SQL with a new Perl OO notation. In my opinion that only makes sense if you're uncomfortable working with SQL. I haven't seen one yet that looked like it was worth the trouble. All the stuff they claim to make so much easier is already easy if you're fluent with SQL!

The big win to using a wrapper, at least in the apps I write, comes when I have to generate complex queries dynamically, based on user input.

I'm not talking about when just a parameter changes (bind 5 versus 10), but rather when the query may span many tables, with many where clauses, subclauses, etc. Generating SQL on the fly for this sort of thing is extremely painful.

I also don't think SQL is all that great a language, so I really don't mind using Perl instead. Once Perl 6 comes out I'd like to write a truly relational DB using it as the native language (or some subset thereof). That would be my ideal database.

Ah, dreams ...