Good Reading

I subscribe to a number of e-mail newletters. I especially like .Net Insight and MSDN Flash, but others are useful as well.

I was reading a newsletter from Red Gate Software this morning and came across an article debating the merits of using stored procedures. I have to say, I come down on the "always" use sprocs side of the argument. The maintenance angle has historically been key for me: the ability to quickly make a change or a fix has been very useful where I work. Much A significant amount of my time goes towards supporting and enhancing an ASP/VB6/ActiveReports app, where I have several server-side DLL's serving up ActiveReports driven by sprocs. I audit each report usage, in many cases including the parameters used by the report calls. This permits me to quickly reproduce, diagnose, and fix most problems by working with the stored procedures alone. All new apps at the office are being developed using ASP.Net using CodeSmith to generate the business objects, CRUD sprocs, and data access layer code. It's gotta be sprocs!

The same site also had a good article on longevity in my profession. It's one of the few I've seen with an upbeat take on things.