>Sorry if I didn't express myself correctly in the previous message. I'm aware of what the different technologies are for.
>
>My concern, and I've heard others voice the same, is how valid are these technologies.

IMHO, ADO is a great way to get at data through an object model, but that's it. It doesn't give us too much that we don't already have with ODBC/OLEDB. It is/was MS' marketing baby.

XML is something completely different. ADO, while being currently trumpeted by MS marketing, could someday go the way of RDS. But there are a lot more companies betting a heck of a lot more on XML. XML, IMHO, is the most exciting thing to come our way for sometime. Pick up a copy of INfo week and count from cover to cover how many articles mention company's current efforts involving XML. It's not just hype- people are getting things done that wouldn't have been practical or possible before XML.