Re: SQL's JOIN syntax is no harder to learn and more precise to use
It's horses for courses, of course.
One of the reasons I like Entity Framework and Visual Studio is that it can be used to automate the creation of the C# accessor classes from whatever tables are in a given database. That makes it pretty easy to evolve a db schema during development missing out that mechanistic tedium.
Getting rid of that tedium is, I find, quite liberating; one can make a lot of changes, additions, etc. pretty rapidly with a minimal risk of misunderstanding between the application and database as to what the tables look like. I don't think it can be done as part of the build process - I've never looked - but I've been quite happy in the past just pressing the few necessary buttons.
I'm aware that, to a proper db-aware developer, I must sound like a right numpty; they'd be spot on. But it does make it possible for those of us who aren't so hot with db's to make effective use of them without spending too much time on the matter. And I guess that, afterall, that was MS's intent. The end result clearly isn't and, judging by the tone of the ambition reported in this article, may never be as optimum as hand crafted SQL, but then again making that switch from EF to pure SQL would for many be something they're prepared to put off until v2.0 of a system.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
