Re: questions about the manager

(This wandered off-list due to poor Gmail-wrangling by me.  I'm sending this
along just so it'll be in the archives.)

On 6/2/06, Guillermo Roditi <groditi-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
wrote:
>On 6/2/06, John Siracusa <siracusa-mn4gwa5WIIQysxA8WJXlww@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
>wrote:
>> On 6/2/06, Guillermo Roditi 
>> <groditi-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>> I get the meta part (I actually typed that exact method name in an
>>>> earlier email before I revised it) but then why is there a need for
>>>> two helper methods?  Wouldn't setting that attribute simply change the
>>>> behavior of the lone insert_or_update() helper method?
>>> 
>>> yeah thats exactly the idea. it means old code becomes instantly more
>>> efficient for mysql simply by setting the flag to true, which is done at the
>>> class level with the rest of the config. so youwould do it when specifying
>>> your classes and then thats it. the loader could technically do it for you
>>> as well.
>> 
>> Yeah, but since you have to import the helper anyway, you get the same
>> effect by importing the one with dup-key-update in your class, or your
>> common base class, or wherever.  Basically, I don't see a need for the
>> meta->... attribute since the act of choosing which helper to import,
>> and where you choose import it (e.g., in one class only, or in a
>> common base class) already controls how and where it applies.  Can you
>> give me a scenario where you can do something with the meta attribute
>> that you can't on helper import?
>
> Ahh, i get you now. It's unfortunate that the insert_or_update() is in the
> helper rather than in the main class though as that would have fixed this
> problem.

I like to keep the main class clean, since every new method creates a
new potential conflict with a column accessor name (meaning the column
would have to be explicitly aliased, which is annoying to do and which
the loader won't do for you...and can't really do in a sane way, short
of adding numbers to the end of the method name or something similarly
silly :).

Since making a common base class is the recommended practice anyway, I
don't think importing all the helpers you want to use in that one
place is an undue burden :)

-John