.... For example, the author is either unaware of hash slices 
     or chooses not to use them in the first code example.  While 
     constructing SQL statements with many fields and placeholders 
     is tedious, and the Insert() function of DBIx::Recordset is 
     shorter, one could reduce 15 or more lines of repetitive code 
     [in the DBI example] with hash slices ....  It would be possible 
     to improve the final example by using placeholders,
     as well ....