I thought that this was worth highlighting.
ADO.NET Data Services has a newer moniker:
ADO.NET Data Services Framework
While I still prefer “Astoria”, adding “framework” now encompasses the fact that there are client APIs as well, not just the services.
Last fall, I presented a 3 hour workshop at DevConnections, comparing and contrasting ADO.NET, LINQ to SQL and Entity Framework’s LINQ to Entities, Object Services and EntityClient as well as comparing LINQ to Entities to Entity SQL, then providing recommendations for when one makes sense over the others in various scenarios. It was a really fun session to present.
It was a little daunting to pull together, though, because even Microsoft hadn’t provided this guidance at that point beyond “LINQ to SQL is for RAD and EF is for the Enterprise”. There were a few great forum comments by Mike Pizzo which were helpful.
Coincidentally, (definitely coincidence, I’m not trying to suggest otherwise) Diego Vega, a PM on the EF team, wrote a great post on the the API part of the topic three days after I did the session. And then followed it up in December with a post about LINQ to Entities vs Entity SQL. I laughed that it was in response to a question by John Papa and emailed John to say “geeze, man, you were at the conference, and you were a speaker. You could have come to my workshop for free!” John had presented two great intro sessions on Entity Framework as part of the Data Access track.
So, I am presenting this as a shorter talk at Vermont.NET tomorrow night. We’ll see how short. I may just have someone lock the doors when I get started. 🙂
I’ll be doing this session again in May at DevTeach and June at TEchEd. I expect it to evolve by June.
Ahh – but who needs data anyway, right?
Everybody! 🙂
There’s a new website in town filled with news from teh blogosphere, articles, tutorials and an extensive list of resources for doing Data Access.
It’s called DataDeveloper.NET and can be found at http://datadeveloper.net (leave out the www)
Yours truly has had fun writing bunches of Entity Framework tutorials.
There’s also a great article by Matthieu Mezil called Entity Data Mapping, Beyond the Basics.
I think the appropriate mourning period is over.
Last week when Alex Homer and I were discussion the Data Access track at the upcoming DevConnections conference, he told me that he’s going to work for THE MAN. He’s taken a job on the Patterns and Practices Team for whom he has been contracting for a few years.
The next day there was a post on his blog called “Selling my soul“.
It’s not like I’ve been reading Dave & Al’s books since I was in diapers or anything (I believe Dave is younger than me anyway) but it’s definitely a huge deal for them and for anyone who has known them as Dave and AL or Al and Dave for such a long time. Sniff sniff.
It’s not a drama or anything so don’t’ watch for it to show up in the next issue of Soap Opera Digest. Just a big change for both of them who have teamed up for years.
Dave follows up on this blog post, The End of an Era.
My biggest worry is not being able to count on hanging out with Alex at future DevCOnnections. This has always been a problem when friends who I see at conferences go to work for Microsoft. They aren’t free to travel about quite as much. But at least I’ll still have Dave.
They’ll always be Dave and Al, to me.
Okay I have to get back to the kleenex now. 😉