>>>I don't use Codesmith, but there are other tools out for for generating typed data sets.
>>>
>>>>Craig,
>>>>
>>>>I am a BIG fan of 'Nettiers' which is a set of templates for the codegenerator 'Codesmith' that generates the typed datasets for you (and much more). I hardly ever use datasets, datatables, etc anymore ... it makes life much, MUCH easier !
>>>>And yes, C# boy too ...
>>
>>
>>Can you tell me which tools you were referring to that will generate Typed DataSets? I assume you point the tool at your SQL Server instance, and it will create the .XSD file for each selected table? Then, if the table schema changes, you can re-run the tools to re-create the .XSD file?
>>
>>I'm trying to decide on the data access plan I want to use in the .NET world. There are too many options. At least if I start with Typed DataSets, I'll learn learning the basics, then I may move on to EF or some other ORM. However, I don't want to go there right off the bat, without serving my time on the basic techniques.
>
>
>Old post...
>
>But look at NHibernate before Entity Framework. More mature... more stable... more features. Free and open-source. I've been using it for a few months now and it is dandy.

You might find this interesting:
http://gregdoesit.com/2009/08/nhibernate-vs-entity-framework-a-performance-test/