LINQ, ASP.NET and C# 3.0

Yep, finally got on the bandwagon of Linq, Dlinq and thought i would take a crack at it. Scott Gu posted a nice example of using Linq with ASP.NET, check it out.  It's nice that MS came out with such an OO query language against stongly typed data. 

Only one issue that I've encountered during this demo.  Being new at this, I thought I could simply upload this new Linq project up to my host since the compiler sits in my /bin directory.  Unluckly, it seems like it's asking for full permissio, so I guess I'll have to test and play with Linq till it finally comes out, or try another hosting which allows full trust permission. (Though, I should try move this project onto another machine without Linq May CTP installed and see what happens)

Been checking out NHibernate and other O/R mappers for quite sometimes now, loving the ways they are architected (the only reason I haven't been using O/R mappers is due to my concern of efficiency.  For example, in one store procedure, i could query data three levels deep in one try, where I'm not so sure if O/R mapper is doing it as efficiently. How many hits does it take an O/R mapper to get the same data? I need to research on that, what about DLinq, how does that handle lazy loading and issues like multiple trips to the database? Still puzzels me)

Anyhow, so what's new in Linq May CTP release?

• Productivity enhancements via DLINQ designer and debugger support within the Visual Studio 2005 IDE.
• Support for a broader range of development scenarios thanks to new databinding and ASP.NET support.
• Ability to integrate LINQ with existing code through features like LINQ over DataSet and DLINQ improvements including inheritance
• Feedback driven features including deep stored procedure support, since the earlier CTP.

Very nice.

Some more comments on Linq By Scott

"You can do LINQ queries against any collection or object model. DLINQ will then have a pluggable provider API -- so someone could connect it to any data source. The built-in provider in the May CTP is for SQL, but others could build an ODBC one. "

"LINQ works against any object model, and is as efficient as writing code against it today.
DLINQ works against databases, and provides a way to use LINQ queries to perform data operations. The SQL it generates on the wire is pretty good (I will blog about that in the future). One nice thing about DLINQ is that you also always have the ability to escape it and provide custom SQL if you want."
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Anyway, so .NET development is full of excitment in the upcoming years. Lots of powerful new features and hopefully, will cut down our development quite a bit. Some other .NET technologies on my list to learn or continue to learn, are

• Windows Workflow Foudation
• Script #
• XAML
• Atlas
• Composite Control (Darn it, I HAVE TO MASTER THIS)

So sad that I finally decided to give up on Java after six years.  It just doesn't give me the same constant stream of innovations and motivations lately. The few of the better projects like Struts, Hibernate, JSF (which still sucks IMO at this minute) and GWT are really the exceptions. The issue is? If you plan on integrating all these together, have fun with setting up your jar files and the numerous configuration files. I never once had smooth sailing starting up a new project (not to mention the numerous jar conflictsl).

On top of it all, try to  deploy an app you developed in Jboss onto another server like weblogic, websphere. 1 ou tof 3 times I had issues such like database class loaders related issues,  configuration issues,  jar files incompatible with each other and what's worst is these things take you forever to figure out.

When I'm done with these environment settings in Java? I'm about 1/3 done with my ASP.NET project. *Shrug*.  Maybe I'm just not "smart" enough for Java and since .NET doesn't give me the same headaches and allows me to use the valueable time to learn new techologies? I know I'm making a right decision FOR ME.  Bye Java, .NET is my new love :)

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