I like LINQ

LINQ stands for Language Integrated Query, a new feature of the .NET Framework 3.5. And it’s cool.

I have used LINQ to SQL on the My Flatmates Facebook application, and it made things a lot quicker. LINQ to SQL creates classes out of your database tables. Then you can use LINQ statements to create instances of the classes from your data. I think that Ruby is similar in that you work directly against the database. But I’ve never worked with Ruby before and haven’t read anything about it (I think Siggy from SilverStripe told me about it, discussing the performance of PHP vs the ease of Ruby, but I digress).

It requires a change of thinking though. I’ve grown up believing that stored procedures are the way to go, for performance and security. But LINQ to SQL is more flexible when you don’t use stored procs. I did a bit of a search for what this means for best practice and it seems that best practice is changing. (And in the MySQL world, stored procs are only a new thing and most people don’t think they’re needed.)

That is why I like LINQ.