>>>>I've had several classes on C#, probably about 3 of them, meaning 3 semesters, but that was a while back. I've never had any projects at any clients sites or on any projects using C#. I wonder if someone could advise me on what component to use for data access? Maybe component isn't the right word. Now, I am not a complete novice, but pretty close to it, so realize that I am also a bit rusty.
>>>
>>>Cecil,
>>>
>>>as some have mentioned here, a commercial framework might be the best way to learn what you need to learn in order to become proficient. I've used MM.Net, Strataframe and Ideablade on various projects, and all of them have flatten my learning curve as well as considerably shortened time to finish on small and large projects alike. You give up some control to the framework, but as long as you don't start "fighting" its way of doing things, at least in the beginning, you will get things done in a hurry.
>>>
>>>I personally like Ideablade the best because of its well thought-out (and simple!) data access and business object models that now extend to Silverlight development as well. However, it is also the most expensive framework of the bunch
>>>
>>>Good luck with all that!
>>
>>Pertti, I'm clueless about these frameworks and am looking at learning the Entity Framework. Do the commercial frameworks use the Entity Framework? If so how?
>
>Mike --
>
>yes, at least Ideablade does. For more information see http://www.ideablade.com/PDF/EFforReal.pdf.
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>MM.NET training has had some topics related to Entity Framework, but I'm not sure if they integrate it tightly into their current product or if they are just talking about how to bolt MM.NET to the MS Entity Framework.
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>As far as I know -- and I may be wrong about this -- Strataframe doesn't do anything with EF, nor do they have ORM capabilities. But like I said, Ideablade has been my main .NET tool lately so that is the one out of these three that I am most familiar with recently.
>
>Cheers,

The next release of MM will be using Entity Framework. It is in beta testing now and I would anticipate a release very soon. I have seen comments from Oak Leaf for quite awhile about support for the Entity Framework. I would expect a nice integration.
Tim