This is a bit sensitive, so I say it up front that this is not trolling and I am talking in a serious but positive way.

This relates to Handle MySQL BIT data type in Perl. Last night I had the thought maybe I should test it with java, see whether the JDBC driver actually supports BIT data type. I did it this morning, and obviously it worked. If you are interested, here is the testing code:

import java.sql.*;

public class Test {
    public static void main(String argv[]) {
        try {
            Connection mysql = MySQLConnection.getConnection();
            final String insert = "insert into test(a) value(?)";
            PreparedStatement insertStatement = mysql.prepareStatement
+(insert);
            insertStatement.setInt(1, 3);
            insertStatement.executeUpdate();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } 
    }
}
[download]

Now here comes what I am trying to point out. The JDBC driver is provided by MySQL itself (or someone they contract or whatever). Obviously at the time when they release a new version of the database, they also make sure that the JDBC driver is ready, as those people at MySQL thought that most of their users would use Java. Doesn’t matter whether that was true, that’s how they thought.

Although nobody here likes it, this does come as a drawback for Perl. There would be people who want to go with a new version as soon as possible, either for the purpose of utilizing new features or some other reasons, as long as the new version is reasonably stable. (I am not saying BIT data type has any particular importance, it is not important to most of the people, but there will be other times, some other feature that is important.) If the language can have the driver ready, obviously it comes as one pro.

This is not important to us hardcore Perl users. We work together as one community, and make sure the DBD being available reasonably quick. But there is a different story with the general public. On the other hand, I don't think MySQL is the only company that thinks in this way.

Now I am just throw this topic on the table, and would like to hear everybody’s thought, especially what remedy we can come up as a united community.