Database Action

A starting idea: suppose we had a DatabaseAction object with instance variables query, success, fail, and message. Suppose when it was created, it sent itself the message execute(). Suppose that object encapsulated everything. The code, in Smalltalk, might look like this:

DatabaseAction
query: queryThatCouldFail
success: updateThatCouldFail
failure: anotherThingThatCouldFail
message: tellUserItDidn'tWork


Naturally there would be default forms such as

DatabaseAction query: queryThatCouldFail


Could a system built around DatabaseAction be simpler, more clear, faster to write, more reliable than hand-coding conditional OR try/catch code? Nah, probably not.

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Hey, pull the execute call out of construction, make it a composite and implement transactions. Why wouldn't it work? -- MichaelFeathers

It would. But don't tell the C++ guys.