Professional ADO.NET 3.5 with LINQ and the Entity Framework

Chapter 5. Using LINQ to SQL and the LinqDataSource

LINQ to SQL is one of the three domain-specific LINQ implementations included in the .NET Framework 3.5 upgrade and VS 2008 RTM. Chapters 6, "Querying DataTables with LINQ to DataSets," and Chapter 7, "Manipulating Documents with LINQ to XML," cover the other two. LINQ to SQL began life in 2003 as a project intended to become the successor to ObjectSpaces, Microsoft's first serious attempt to deliver a commercial object/relational mapping (O/RM) tool. O/RM is intended to simplify the process of exchanging data created by object-oriented programs with relational databases. Microsoft initially intended Object Spaces to become part of Visual Studio 2003 (Everett) and later included it in an early beta version of VS 2005. The ill-fated Windows Future Storage (WinFS) relational database for what was to become the Windows Vista operating system adopted Object Spaces as the query engine for its client API. When Microsoft abandoned WinFS as a product in June 2006, ObjectSpaces died with it. Early VS 2008 beta versions included DatabaseLINQ (DLinq) and XmlLINQ (XLinq), which the Visual Studio team renamed LINQ to SQL and LINQ to XML two days before the announcement of WinFS's demise.

O/RM tools for .NET is a highly competitive market. There were more than 60 commercial and open-source O/RM tools listed in the SharpToolbox's Object-Relational Mappers category (http://sharptoolbox.com/categories/object-relational-mappers) when this book was ...