I thought I'd answered this post, but it seems to have gone missing
When you started programming in VB was your way of coding the same as it is now?
I'm not actually a VB programmer. The only time I write VB is in example projects and posts here. I'm a C# programmer but for these purposes it is easier to refer to myself as a .NET programmer, because they are essentially the same language.
Or did it change completely throughout the years?
Not really.. I try to adopt best practices from the start but there are times that I've altered my practice in response to house standards or realisation that there is a better practice than what I've been using. As an example, I've been using parameterized queries since I first learned Java JDBC back in 97, but the naming convention I apply to variables in C# is different to that from java.
The updatecommand,insertcommand and deletecommand of the tableadapter are they created behind the scenes by a commandbuilder?
They are created by something like a command builder, yes
Does this mean i could use it in a webapplication?
The code generated here, datasets and tableadapters can be used anywhere; it's merely standard VB. Nothing magical tied to Windows Forms
But i still think i'm going to write all the database accesscode myself.
Is this a bad idea?
Some people think it's good to do the low level coding, but they tend to make a bad job of it, not follow good coding/oo/sql practices and take 3 weeks to write something that doesnt work, then come moaning to us for help fixing it. The designer lets you concentrate on the important part (writing the SQL), and it arranges everything properly and with good practices, generating massive amounts of code in just a few minutes and best of all; it works.
There's an inherent hypocrisy too, in someone who insists on writing their own database code but then uses e.g. the forms designer to lay out their UI. Why don't they write all the UI code themselves too? Thousands of boring lines of setting proeprties, make a new button, set its text, location, resizing, event handlers etc etc
Take that a step further; if they want to be so hard core, why use Visual Studio with all its Intellisense aids etc at all? Why not just use notepad; after all that's real hard core programming that teaches a person the real amazing detail right? Nah; there are some levels of detail that are hidden because it just isn't worth thinking about them.
If you take a look at the code the dataset generator makes for you, you'll see it's very good. You can gain most of what you'd want to know about the db interaction by reading it, thinking "oh. That's how it works. Cool. Now I'll get on with something interesting"
What i mean is do i get any benefits or downsides with writing it myself?
Benefits; er - you'll know how dataadapters fill datatables, or how queries are run and arranged.. But I see this as logically equivalent to pausing writing your app for a month so you can study how an Intel processor works. Do you really need to know that level of detail? The time would be better invested in learning how to write good SQL queries, not how to write 25 lines of code to drag data from a db into (essentially) a 2D array.
Downsides; as noted, you'll waste a lot of your life writing boring, repetitive code that will likely be a worse job and more broken than what the designer will do, picking up a shed load of bad habits along the way and come the end of it you wont actually know anything quantitatively proportional to the amount of time you put into it
I also want to say that i believe you are a very patient person and thank you
for being this way!
Heh.. I think the jury's still out on whether I'm patient/tolerant. My boss said to me recently: "CJ; working with you would make anyone question their sanity"
This was just after I'd asked a client to define "optional" in the context of 'this CSV field is optional' [it turned out that their "optional" actually meant "mandatory"]..
In another example, when the paper spec (so I couldn't use copy/paste) said 'This field must
exactly match the text "Mother's Age" I asked whether the character between the R and S in Mother's was an apostrophe, right single quote or acute accent.. I then had to explain character sets to their developers, and why a computer would treat [Mother's, Mother’s, Mother´s] as inequal. After a round of emails that culminated in their response being "We don't really understand your question" I lost patience, gave up and said "OK, I'll just send my best guess and if it errors we'll change it"
