Tuesday night's Bloomington .NET User's Group meeting went very well. I am really enjoying the mingling/networking that goes on throughout the meeting. There is a lot of value in learning the techniques and technology other developers use to solve a wide range of problems.
Meeting Summary
- Began with mingling/networking and Avanti's sub sandwiches (gondolas) provided by our excellent sponsor, TEKSystems.
- I gave a presentation on how I use my CodeSmith templates to generate a framework class library that allows me to easily manage database data.
- At the end we gave away a Microsoft Fingerprint Reader and an "Introduction to Windows Vista" book.
The attendees brought up several good questions during my presentation, including "Why not use
strongly typed datasets, instead of the custom business objects and DAL that are being created by your CodeSmith templates?". I have not had to defend my
reasoning for steering away from strongly typed datasets, for some time. So, it was nice to be challenged, but I can't say that I was able to give a "good" reason for my choice. I may address this issue in a future post, but the "Custom Business Entities vs Strongly Typed Datasets" controversy has been debated, ad nauseam, by people who are much smarter than I am. Like many decisions in software development and life in general, it comes down to personal preference. Here are some examples:
For the time being, I will stick with my CodeSmith solution. But, with Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 coming down the pike, it may be time to check out some out-of the-box options from MS (LINQ anyone?).
I received some suggestions on how to improve my templates using partial classes. I will try and provide these updated templates as soon as I am finished with them. For the time being, you can download CodeSmith 2.6 (FREE) and my original templates.
I did not have time to put together an adequate presentation on SubSonic, we did discuss it and the Castle Project a little bit. We also found out, from an MS employee who attended the meeting, that BLINQ will be an alternative to those types of projects. I will have to keep an eye on BLINQ's development.
Thanks goes out to everyone who attended and supported this month's meeting. I had several people mention that they would be interested on presenting, which is great. If you are one of them, don't forget to contact me so we can setup a date.
I will update everyone on our mailing list with information on the upcoming Tuesday September 11th as it becomes available. For now, just plan on being there. Remember, this group will only be as good as we make it. Just showing up at the meetings will allow you to participate in and contribute to the growth of our local .NET community.