Contents tagged with Orcas
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Great News: Only One O/RM Shipping in Orcas
I almost can't believe the great news that came from MS today. That's right, the ADO.NET Entity Framework has been delayed ! I bet most of you think I'm being sarcastic, but I am serious. I've got at least three reasons why this is good news to me.
First, this gives Linq to Sql a better opportunity to thrive. Linq to Sql is the "simpler" OR/M that's looking good enough for the vast majority of cases, while ADO.NET EF is far more complex -- and yet most gurus only wanted to talk about the EF.
Next, since ADO.NET EF is so complicated, it absolutely must have a great designer ship concurrently, which was not the plan. MS has apparently accepted this feedback since this is at least the publicly given rationale for the delay in shipping the EF.
Finally, and this one may not pan out, but it is my own hope that ADO.NET EF is being re-aligned somewhat with Linq to Sql. These two O/RMs are similar enough to share at least some code, and I believe that some of the MS guys have hinted at this too.
So I'm happy that at first there will be one O/RM -- Linq to Sql. The gurus may be disappointed, but the vast majority of MS devs will be new to O/RMs anyhow, and Linq to Sql will be good enough. Very much like my simple WilsonORMapper has been so widely used. -
LINQ to SQL "Real" Example App Available
The Atlanta Code Camp was today, so I finally got to give my LINQ and O/R Mapping talk that I've been preparing.
I tried to have minimal slides so that I could do a deep dive into real code, but I still went a little too long. The slides look great on my own PC, and in fact they're mostly some I stole straight from other LINQ presentions. But the overhead I was using made the text nearly unreadable for some reason, which made me take longer on the slides. It also made some of the standard VS color syntax unreadable, with the work-around being to select that code. I small the same problem with another speaker in the same room, so I guess it was the projector, but very frustrating.
In the end I still got to hopefully show a fair amount of LINQ to SQL, but I had really hoped to show more. I also made sure I gave a glimpse at SqlMetal and LINQ to Entities, but both of those were meant to be just glimpses. Finally, I briefly demoed my new "real" example application written with LINQ to SQL which is included in my download. This example shows off my own POCO objects with an external XML Mapping file, instead of the ugly code gen with attributes. Its also a "real" app that consumes the LINQ to SQL with WinForms grids, drop-down filtering, and create, update, and delete.
Note that it assumes the May 2006 CTP, but I'll update it to the next one when it comes out, hopefully next month. Its also nearly identical to my existing "real" example app downloads that I have for my own ORMapper and NHibernate. -
Breaking News: Future Version of .NET Framework to Run on the Mac
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Atlanta Code Camp 2007 Registration is Open
Registration for Atlanta Code Camp 2007 on January 20th is now open. Space is limited and fills up fast, so do NOT delay registering -- it's free. Thanks to Jim Wooley for putting this together this year.
I'll be presenting a session titled "Linq and O/R Mapping" that will be lots of real code and very little powerpoint. If you've seen the standard Linq sessions already, or even if not, but you've been wanting more then this is for you. I'm not going to waste any time on Linq to Objects or Xml, although those are cool in their right -- I will focus purely on Linq to Sql, and to a lesser extend Linq to Entities or Datasets. Do you want to see a real application built using Linq to Sql? That's what I plan to do, and I'll do it several ways so you can experience the possibilities. For instance, should we use SqlMetal, the GUI Designer, or do our own thing with xml mappings instead of attributes? What if you want to include some relationships, use some stored procs, and even some inheritance? We shall cover all of those possibilities and more -- you will NOT be disappointed since this will not be just another slide deck or sample series based on what's already available. In fact, I would actually challenge you to find any other "real" sample that includes all of these with xml mappings, but you won't find it since it doesn't exist. I hope you get that I'm excited about this, as these technologies have definitely matured past my initial criticisms. And even if you can't make it for some reason, I'll post at least some version of my sample app after the event is over for all to see. -
ASPInsider Public Overview via Scott Guthrie
The ASPInsiders Summit began today with Scott Guthrie's overview of what's happening. Steve Smith already has a good summary of his presentation, so I won't try to repeat it. Instead, let me just say that working with .NET just keeps getting more and more exciting. Its truly amazing to see how agile some of the teams at Microsoft have become recently. We've already seen Web Application and Deployment Projects and CSS Control Adapters, and now we see Expression Web Designer, PowerShell, and VS 2005 for Data Professionals. But expect to see more very soon, like ASP.NET Ajax, Data Publishing, and VS 2005 SP1, and later on the things still in CTP, like Orcas, IronPython, WPF/E, and IIS 7.0 Server.
I've already installed some things, including the final release version of .NET v3.0, but I really need to go install Expression Web, PowerShell, and VS 2005 Data Pro too. Expression Web will give you today the CSS friendly design surface that Orcas will have, and VS 2005 Data Pro will give you Schema Compare, Data Compare, Data Generator, and more. Speaking of data, the Data Publishing Tool that is coming very soon will not only generate the sql to build your database schema, but it will also finally build sql to populate it. And note that VS 2005 SP1 will not only include bug fixes (and there are more than 2200), but it will also automatically finally include Web Application Projects (no addin needed).
Of course no matter how much we get today, we also are still very much wanting Orcas. I have no clue what the target release date is, but I'm guessing very late 2007 or early 2008. But it will be cool when it does come, and it will support all of v2.0, v3.0, and vNext. That means it will finally add Linq, and make AJAX built-in as opposed to being an addin, but it will also include the Expression Web Designer and JavaScript Intellisense/Debugging. I'm assuming it will also include full support for WPF/E, which is looking really cool. But don't wait until then to start getting the various pieces that are out now or soon. And that was really what I got out of Scott's talk the most -- a lot of this is available today or is coming soon.