LINQ in Action - THE LINQ book

One of the frequently asked questions is about the lifetime of a DataContext. Should it be a long-lived, application-scoped object or should it be a short-lived, request-scoped object? Let's get to the answer by considering the key parameters: DataContext is ideally suited for a ''unit of work'' approach: Retrieve a bunch of objects through one ...

I got a few mails and saw a few forum posts about the confusion created by new locations for dll/exe in beta2. So here is where you can find LINQ to SQL related files. New .NET Framework 3.5 DLLs (''>green bits) are in: Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\v3.5\ SqlMetal.exe is in Program Files\Microsoft ...

Orcas beta2 is here for you. This is significantly ahead of beta1 and pretty close to the final feature set of Orcas for most components. The releases are available both as regular installs and as VPC images.   Now that Orcas beta2 has been released, it is time to look at what's new there. But first, a general sense of how beta2 shaped ...

It has been a while since I posted but given the continuing response and the start of TechEd, it is time to restart. A number of us from the C# team are here: Luca Bolognese, Charlie Calvert, Karen Liu, Luke Hoban and Kathy Lu. Even if you can't join us in Orlando, you can still join us virtually for the talks and even ask questions. We have a ...

With a tip of a hat to Rudyard and his ballad, I would say Oh SQL is SQL and C# is C#, and never the twain shall meetTill rows and objects manually a dev has both to beatBut there is neither SQL nor C#, nor join nor dotWhen LINQ stands to link the twin what magic have I got Ballads aside, this is a real problem that we are grappling with. There ...

Let's say you build an app that uses a traditional ORM concept of lazy loading. Your app binds an Order object to a grid and lets the user lazily load related objects like OrderLines. Your user - a normal cubicle dweller, queries for an Order and then decides to go get some coffee.  She comes back, navigates to OrderLines and ... Oops! Some ...

Good question - in the kitchen of course! The dish is now ready on the LINQ home page and our VP - Soma has a nice blog about it already. I feel exhausted but happy to be able to share the results of ''our'' work with you.   The word ''our'' in English is strange - it has both inclusive and exclusive meanings. Here, I mean it ...

OK, the title is buzzwordy and doesn't mean much but here is the question I want to pose as we evaluate the relative priorities of various multi-tier scenarios in DLinq. Do you use the same type on mid-tier and on presentation / web-service client tier? I have seen many discussions about how some people want to use the same assemblies on ...

Currently, when DLinq retrieves entities, it automatically inserts them in an identity cache. This ensures that if you run two queries whose results overlap, you get the same objects by reference - not copies. The object reference after all is the identity in CLR world. This ensures that when you change an entity, you don't need to worry about ...

I got a couple of emails and a question on my blog about chat transcripts. DLinq transcripts may be a bit tricky to find since they are filed under Visual Studio rather than .NET Framework. It takes 2-3 weeks to get the transcripts up so the latest one won't show up for a while. See ...