One way to classify the various parts of LINQ - Language INtegrated Query - is by data store. I recently added an article about LINQ to SQL. Another major data store is XML.

Although there are already a few articles about LINQ to XML at About Visual Basic, I decided to create a completely new one to clarify the VB.NET language enhancements that were added just for LINQ to XML ... and another example.

So the current LINQ series here has been expanded once again to include a new article for the XML data store. The other articles are indexed at the end so you have a single point of entry for everything at:

LINQ to XML

The LINQ series, now being filled out at About Visual Basic, has been expanded to include a new article about LINQ to SQL. (Click Here to go straight to the new article.) One of the things mentioned is the scare that went through the developer community, about a year after LINQ to SQL was announced, that it would be summarily dropped again in favor of a different way of accessing databases from an application, the Entity Framework.

One of the most interesting things about that scare was that developers were so willing to believe it. A major new capability had been added to the .NET Framework and the Microsoft languages that it supports: (VB.NET and C#) and developers thought Microsoft would just write it all off and go in another direction anyway.

Keep in mind, this would mean that not only would Microsoft throw away a lot of their own money, they would also throw away a lot of customer money too by making any development customers had done using LINQ to SQL obsolete. And a lot of developers thought they would just go ahead and do that.

This is EXACTLY what Microsoft did when they took VB6 behind the barn and hit it with a lead pipe. One might argue that Microsoft really didn't have any investment that had not been written off long ago in VB6. But customers did! And Microsoft threw away that investment too! I would argue that the reaction of developers to the rumors about LINQ to SQL are echos of that bad decision that are still with us ten years later.

... however ...

As I researched the documentation available for LINQ to SQL at Microsoft, it appears to me that not much has been updated since 2007 when the big announcement was made. The examples they use are obsolete and some don't even work now. Why wouldn't Microsoft be updating their LINQ to SQL documentation?

Hmmmmm ... Maybe ......

I. M. Wright (catchy pseudonym), consummate Microsoft insider, has published the secrets he shared only with his co-conspirators in the company!

Wellll ... That's a little over the top. Actually, Eric Brechner - consummate Microsoft insider - has published his most popular columns. But it's a great read. I review Eric's book at:

Hard Code - Management Insights From Inside Microsoft

LINQ - Language INtegrated Query - is probably the most successful innovation in .NET since ... well ... since .NET. There have been lots of others ... MVC, Entity Frameworks, WPF. But they just haven't hit a home run like LINQ has. There's an old saying that success has many fathers but failure is an orphan. LINQ has lots of "homes" these days. It's being included in more and more data technologies. So this week, I'm starting a new series about LINQ.

Although the About Visual Basic site already contains several articles explaining various parts of  LINQ, it's not complete and it's not organized as well as it could be. I plan to reorganize some of the existing content as well as writing new content to fill in blank holes. Wish me luck!

The first installment is an introduction to the overall LINQ technology - what it covers and what you can do with it - with a new example showing how LINQ could be used to start web pages using selections made with CheckBox controls.

The first LINQ article can be found here: LINQ - An Example Driven Introduction