John,

>If somebody has the luxury of starting fresh, it seems sensible to create reusable classes that work just as well in connected and detached/stateless scenarios and that conserve bandwidth. Why wouldn't you- especially if the development tool offers change tracking for that precise purpose? IMHO it's like using local views in VFP - not necessary, and a bit more complex than SCAN FOR etc, but when it comes time to upsize to a C/S database it's a no-brainer if you've prepared from the start.
>
>The task is to figure out whether it is the SP or the change tracking built into datasets/eventually entities that offers the long term benefit. ;-)

I have the nagging doubt we both try to see this too much from the technical point. Bandwidth growth is still rampant, and probably more merit is given to the posibilities of integrating other companies with their backends - use middle tier - or having one solid company back bone for all the crazy stuff those nerds try out - from winforms to php on linux.

Or more cynical - in which unportable pocket can we tease "our" developers to keep them firmly tied ;-)

regards

thomas