Before using LINQ, think about why embedded SQL isn’t used anymore (except maybe some die-hard Oracle fans).

One of the biggest obstacles is vendor lock-in.

Example of old-time embedded SQL:

EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION;
int thisSID;
float thisGPA;
EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION;
EXEC SQL DECLARE CS145Student CURSOR FOR
SELECT SID, GPA FROM Student WHERE SID IN
(SELECT SID FROM Take WHERE CID = ’CS145’)
FOR UPDATE;
EXEC SQL OPEN CS145Student;
EXEC SQL WHENEVER NOT FOUND DO break;
while (1) {
EXEC SQL FETCH CS145Student INTO :thisSID, :thisGPA;
printf("SID %d current GPA %f\n", thisSID, thisGPA);
printf("Enter new GPA: ");
scanf("%f", &thisGPA);
EXEC SQL UPDATE Student SET GPA = :thisGPA
WHERE CURRENT OF CS145Student;
}
EXEC SQL CLOSE CS145Student;

“Give me all the records from the orders table”
(SELECT * FROM orders)

“From the orders table, give me all the records”
(FROM orders SELECT *)

The LANGUAGE will never be the barrier in the programming world. It’s always going to come back to the LOGIC of things that makes programming difficult. The ‘casual user’ will never be able to program, no matter how natural you make the language. Sure, they could do queries, run simple commands, etc. (and, as such, natural language programming is quite suitable for small scripts and sql queries), but they’ll still never be able to build an enterprise class web service.

Also, if your looking for the web jedi master, there can be only one.

Coldfusions Jedi Master

I recommend watching the LINQ video. Some of its benefits are astounding. I’m really curious what the Java camp will do to combat this move by MS.