should DBI have a "KeepAlive" attribute

[Terrence Brannon]

in Example::DB in DBIx::AnyDBD, we see code which always returns 
a viable database handle or throws an exception. The question is 
shouldn't this type of behavior be available as part of DBI?

sub instance {
     if ($DB && $DB->ping) {
         # rollback uncommited transactions
         # this doesn't work where multiple nested method calls 
might call insta\
nce()
         # $DB->rollback;

         return $DB;
     }

     my $class = shift;

     my $x = 0;
     do {
         if ($DB) {
             eval { $DB->disconnect; };
             undef $DB;
         }
         $class->connect;
         return $DB if $DB && $DB->ping
     } until ($x++ > MAX_ATTEMPTS);

     die "Couldn't connect to database";
}