I can make no claims to being any kind of exceptional programmer. Heck, I don't even claim to be half bad. But this topic has really revealed to me that the concept of MVC means many things to many people.
In the end, I think what I have concluded, at least for my purposes, is simply this: 1. Modules that deal with core data (i.e. that read/write to the database) shall never output HTML/XML/Whatever. Just hashed (complex) data, or simple arrays. 2. Modules that DO create HTML/XML/Whatever should take the core level data and make the html 3. Modules that present the data should take the html produced by #2 above, wrap as needed in start and end tags, and spit out the resulting page. They data output by #2 shouldn't matter to this module. Whereas I know this is overly simplistic, I think that as a rule, it should work. If I catch myself sticking HTML into the output from my DBI call before I return the final result, I know I have broken my rule and should re-think whatever I am doing. I should never really have to edit #3 (the Viewer), because the HTML construction should be done in #2. If I find myself editing my viewer to accomodate some function I am adding to the overall system, I know I need to re-think what I am doing. Simplistic, yes. Workable, yes. It meets the KISS principle, at least. ;-) Comments, disagreements, smacks across the virtual face willingly accepted. --Jon Robison
