I'd like to add a more perlish layer around MapiLib (working title: MonetDB::CLI). This may look like:
my $Cxn = MonetDB::CLI->connect( ... ); my $Req = $Cxn->query('select * from env'); while ( my $Cnt = $Req->fetch_row ) { print $Req->fetch_field( $_ ) for 0 .. $Cnt-1; }
Still much in the spirit of Mapi, but handles are now objects (with destructors), functions are methods and the methods can throw exceptions. Once we have such an interface, additional implementations are possible. For instance, a XS module could skip the MapiLib layer and use libMapi directly. Later on, an implementation for MCL will be added (I hope) - either in pure perl or on top of libMCL (in case such a library will emerge). Of course, I'd like to use this new interface from DBD::monetdb to be able to choose between various implementations and to ease the transition to MCL. On the downside: additional modules means additional installation efforts. Especially the people resposible for the RPM's will be affected. If this sounds too screwy, it's now the chance to stop me ;-)
Steffen