LINQ To SQL As Replacement To Data Access Guidance Package
by David Hayden ( Florida .NET Developer ), Filed: LINQ To SQL
If you watch the Data Access Guidance Package Screencast on PnPGuidance and compare it to LINQ To SQL, it won't take long for you to think that LINQ To SQL can replace all the code generated as well as offer you additional functionality like Unit of Work, Change Tracking, etc. for FREE. It also gives you that wonderful ability to change the data model incrementally and have those changes be reflected in your applications by simply refreshing the schema, etc. The fact that LINQ To SQL also supports stored procedures is just icing on the cake. Now this is not only true of LINQ To SQL, but you can use a lot of O/R Mappers to replace the Data Access Guidance Package.
I plan to talk about this more when the Microsoft Patterns & Practices Team gets their guidance packages to work on Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2. It has already been announced that GAX 1.3 has been released and works on Visual Studio 2008 beta 2:
We just need P&P to be a little quicker at getting the software factories working on Visual Studio 2008 as well.
As mentioned in several other posts, here are some tutorials on LINQ To SQL to get one thinking about replacing the Data Access Guidance Package Generated Code with LINQ To SQL:
This isn't to say there are not good reasons to still use the Data Access Guidance Package. It is just that LINQ To SQL is a very enticing alternative.
Source: David Hayden ( Florida .NET Developer )
Filed: LINQ To SQL