Gentle.NET Follow-up
After being side-tracked by some pressing issues, I’ve finally had a
chance to play around with Gentle.NET. For the most part, it is a
fairly straightforward and easy to understand framework. I only
encountered two problems while working with it. First, use caution when
naming your database fields. For reasons unknown certain words, like
“state”, get wrapped in square brackets. Gentle.NET doesn’t compensate
for the square brackets when it builds a query, and as you might guess,
those queries will fail. This led to an extended session of pulling out
my hair as I attempted to figure out why my test program wouldn’t work.
My other problem is with the lack of documentation. The source code
comes with a complete set of unit tests, but I would prefer a nice
tutorial outlining the major features and how to use them. If you find
yourself in need of a mapping framework, I recommend that you give
Gentle.NET a look.
With that said, I won’t be using it anytime soon. I’ve come to the
conclusion that Gentle.NET, and object/relational mapping in general, is
a clear violation of YAGNI. For now I will continue to use and
refine the data layer I originally designed for my project. Maybe in the
future, I will have need of something with more features. If/When that
occurs I will be sure to give Gentle.NET another look.