Apologies, but it appears you have posted my code incorrectly in the very first part of your post. Particularly, at the alleged $s->(). I am not sure how key this is to your assertion my code is not strict-compliant .

I have re-read what I posted and cannot find where I ever call $s as the object or class. I call $s as a method to $caller, ie $caller->$s.

In any case, I have a close relative of the code I posted running fine under strict:

      $$database_handle = DBI->connect((
                     map {
                       my $s="database_$_";
                       exists $arguments{$_} ?
                              $arguments{$_} :
                              $caller->$s()
                         }
                     (qw(data_source_name username password))
                    ), {Taint=>$arguments{taint}||$caller->database_ta
+int}
                   ) or die "Could not connect to the database: $DBI::
+errstr" unless defined $$database_handle;
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Please note $$database_handle is not meant to be a symbolic reference. You would need to see the whole module. $database_handle is a reference to a reference (to a handle), which I create earlier in the method because the particular reference (handle) used depends on whether the method is called on a class or an object.

Thanks for the rest of your post -- I will read it over. But, again, no problems with stricture!