Visual Studio Magazine Feature on Entity Framework

The March issue of Visual Studio Magazine covers the ADO.Net Entity Framework with some depth. The article, written by Roger Jennings, includes some sample code and references several valuable links including the download locations of the ADO.Net Entity Framework Beta 3 and the ADO.Net Entity Framework Tools December 2007 CTP 2. Jennings pays homage to Dr. Peter Chen who authored a groundbreaking article for the ACM on Entity Relationship Models in 1976 and a link to the original paper is definitely worth a visit for a deep understanding of Microsoft's philosophical approach to ORM.

Entity Framework Podcast Available on Hanselminutes

Scott Hanselman, who recently joined Microsoft, is still running his independent podcast and has recently published a show on the ADO.Net Entity Framework. The great thing about this episode is not the depth to which he and guest Mike Pizzo explore the features of the Entity Framework, but rather the survey of data connection technologies available in the world of .Net 3.5 and how they relate to one another. Indeed, the show starts with Scott's question to his guest - "Which technology is right for which types of applications?" What follows is a fairly succinct and helpful comparison of the features of LINQ to SQL, LINQ to objects, LINQ to Entities, and even a quick detour into LINQ to DataSets.

Pizzo is a Principal Architect with Microsoft working on the Entity Framework implementation and is quite well-spoken on the topic. To download the show or find out more, follow this link.

New Job, New Blog

So I joined a new consulting firm last month and I'm just now getting my personal blog operational. Some of the delay is attributable to a horrendous case of the flu for most of February; some of the delay was caused by a rapid ramp up for a new potential client looking for a solution proposal in short order; mostly I was just busy getting to know my way around the company and MOSS 2007.

I find the process of blogging to be extremely beneficial when I need to retain the low-level understanding of a new technology explored on a weekend long deep dive and also as an exercise in technical writing that keeps the writing juices flowing for that next short-turnaround RFP response. The subjects I intend to explore in the next few months will not be entirely new for me, but I hope to uncover some new dimensions of the following tools:

• Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (and WSS 3.0)
• ASP.Net AJAX
• The ADO.Net Entity Framework (and other ADO.Net 3.5 techologies)
• Visual Studio 2008
• Windows Server 2008
• SQL Server 2008
• Silverlight 2.0 & WPF

I know there will be insufficient time to dedicate to all of these endeavors, but I think all of these offerings from Microsoft promise to enable .Net developers to deliver distinctive solutions.