Database-Agnostic or Database-Specific .NET Architecture?
This is one of those flaming debates which really derives from (or perhaps just implements the interface of) the "Stored Procedures Are Evil" debate. I title it thusly because that's the real issue in my mind - not whether one should use stored procs or parameterized textual queries - but whether code should be written using a provider model that allows any RDBMS system to be "plugged in", or whether to exploit all the features of a particular database system and say "be damned" to the provider model. In other words, "this is the app, we take advantage of x, y and z special features of xyz brand database that we wanted to use, and you can't switch databases with this app". So what the hell is wrong with that? For certain apps, that can be a good thing. Here are a few juicy links on the original issue to get your blood boiling, if you haven't seen them already: Bouma Howard Miller DeBetta Attwood Personally, I can and have taken bo...