The content_item ones fall into the class of methods that follow from thinking that
content_item__get_live_revision(item_id)
is somehow more "abstract" than
content_item.live_revision
(i.e. referencing the column directly)
The queries would all run faster if code just referenced the columns directly. They're never going away, no meaningful information is being hidden, etc etc.
Now, in C++ one can hide the underlying variable from the user and control access via "get/set_" functions. If you don't provide a "set_foo" function and "foo" is private, you can guarantee that only your class implementation can change the value of foo.
So there really is some value in this approach in C++ (and certain other languages).
But SQL doesn't support "private" columns in a table so we're really getting nothing but slower queries and needless Oracle/PG specific .xql entries out of this approach.
That's just my somewhat strong opinion, how do others feel?
