Dr. Peter Chen - the ER Model and ADO.NET Entity Framework - Podcast

alexbarnett — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 21:49:00 GMT

A couple of weeks ago Dr Peter Chen, inventor of the Entity-Relationship model (ER model), visited the Microsoft Campus to provide a lecture sharing his thoughts on the ADO.NET Entity Framework. As we were planning his visit, he was very keen to make sure that his views could be shared with a wider audience beyond Microsoft employees, so we agree to record some sessions while on campus.

His original paper on the Entity-Relationship model (ER model), published in 1976 is one of the most cited papers in the computer software field. I was fortunate enough to have dinner with him, Sam Druker, Jose Blakeley, Britt Johnston, Erik Meijer, Pedro Cellis where we heard how his ideas on the ER model were formulated some 30 years ago. Lot's more fascinating conversation all about this history of databases, and their future too...

The next morning, I picked up Dr Chen from the hotel and drove him to the recording studio to meet with Britt, Jose and Brian Beckman where they got talking for an hour with the microphone on. Here's the podcast, hosted on Channel 9 (.mp3 here) It is superb. I mean it. If you're into 'data', you'll love it.

"Beckman interviews Dr. Chen along with Jose Blakeley, Software Architect, SQL Server, and Britt Johnston, Director of Program Management, Data Programmability. Join as we discuss the ideas behind Dr. Chen's original paper, how these concepts have subsequently influenced the software industry and database technologies, and how the ADO.NET Entity Framework is an execution runtime for the ER model."

A Short History of the Evolution of Microsoft Data Access APIs

alexbarnett — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 02:28:00 GMT

Earlier this year I read Joel Spolsky's 'Joel on Software'. It's a collection of his blog posts bundled up into a real-world book on topics ranging from tips on code development, to advice on managing programmers, to strategies on running a successful small software business. As an ex-Microsoft employee (he was a program manager on the Excel product team), Spolsky's criticisms of Microsoft practices and strategy can be insightful, if not entertaining...

Now, I started reading the book soon after I joined the Data Programmability team to focus on our community efforts, so you could see why the following paragraph from his Fire and Motion blog post / essay made me sit up and pay attention:

"Think of the history of data access strategies to come out of Microsoft. ODBC, RDO, DAO, ADO, OLEDB, now ADO.NET - All New! Are these technological imperatives? The result of an incompetent design group that needs to reinvent data access every goddamn year? (That's probably it, actually.)"

Hey!! He was talking about my team here and the technologies my team is responsible for. And not only that, he was doing so in a well read book (amongst software developers at least), accusing us (at least with some tongue in cheek) of incompetence!!

I asked around our team: why is the history of data access technologies at Microsoft the way it is? How did we get to where we are today? As a newbie to team I wanted to know the history and to somehow get our own historical perspective out there.

So I asked Mike Pizzo, a Microsoft veteran who has been a member of the team responsible for the 'alphabet soup' of data access technologies at Microsoft for the last 15 years (yes, fifteen) if he would blog something on this topic. To my delight, he agreed.

Today, Mike published Part I – The Early Years, the first blog post in a great series of four documenting the history of data access at Microsoft. I think it's a classic. Enjoy.

"Following is a short history of the evolution of Microsoft Data Access APIs in four parts (so far…)
Part I – The Early Years (ODBC, DAO, RDO, ODBCDirect)
Part II – Componentizing Data Access (OLE DB)
Part III – Disconnected Programming in a Managed Environment (ADO.NET)
Part IV – Programming at the Conceptual Model (ADO.NET Entities and LINQ)
My goal is to describe the industry trends, platform shifts, and usage scenarios that shaped our API landscape over the past 15 years (and, in the retelling, perhaps receive some absolution for my sins…)"

Alex Barnett blog : SQL, DP

Dr. Peter Chen - the ER Model and ADO.NET Entity Framework - Podcast

A Short History of the Evolution of Microsoft Data Access APIs