Newcomer CGI::Prototype is almost enough to make me give up coding altogether in how infuriatingly sensible it is

I suppose the real thing that drives my coding for stuff like that is the sensible "Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns" by Kent Beck, an excellent book for basic object oriented programming, even though it is focused on Smalltalk. (And supports my idea that you really can't say you "do OO" until you've practiced in Smalltalk at least for a short while.)