I am using VS 2002 (VB.NET v.7)for development,  and when I go to Help->About it says .NET Framework 1.0. Should I be upgrading/using .NET to 1.1?...or .NET 2.0 Whats the difference?

I am confused about the System.Data.ODBC and Microsoft.Data.ODBC namespaces. Here's a few of my questions:

Whats the difference?

Why wasn't this functionality included with .NET? I do a LOT of work using ODBC! and I had to download a special add-on just to use Microsoft.Data.ODBC!

After downloading the add-on, I now have access to Microsoft.Data.ODBC namespace...is all I need to do is add a reference to this DLL in my project in order to use it? I mean, I don't have to have the add-on installed on the web-server right?



[Edited by ~Bean~ on 20-04-2005 at 01:41 PM GMT]

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Eggheads unite! You have nothing to lose but your yolks.

Hi bean,
Data Access in .NET is quite a bit different isn't it!
It doesn't help that Version 1.0 (which is what you have) was quickly updated to V 1.1 with Visual Studio 2003, and is just about to go to V. 2.0 with VS2005. V1.0 was very much the starting point - things are much easier in V2.0 so you may want to think about starting there rather than struggling with the problems in the earlier versions. There is an "Express" version of the the ASP.NET 2005 IDE available as a FREE Beta2 download from HERE
The Beta2 for the full VS.NET 2005 is due next week.

I am also confused about the System.Data.ODBC and Microsoft.Data.ODBC namespaces. As far as I am aware you should only need to refer to System.Data.ODBC to be able to connect and create datasets to use in your app.
Uncle Bill has released a "Data Access Application Block" which is a set of helper functions that you can put into your own code and thereby simplify things a bit, as well as having a standardised way of getting at data. You can download this from HERE (You will probably want the version 2 for your current IDE.)
I can recommend this code, it is very useful.

Hope that helps a bit.



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multi-tasking - the ability to hang more than one app. at the same time.

Thanks...I downloaded the new Express ASP.NET IDE the other day and am now ready to uninstall it...LOL...I have forced myself to use VS (VB.NET) and I am getting used to that now...also, after installing that new ASP.NET IDE, when I open VB6 it starts up the install for the ASP.NET IDE...pain in the a$$...

I am including the ODBC DLL in my apps as a reference and I read somewhere to include the DLL file in my bin folder as well. That all seems to work nicely, but I don't think it gives me access to System.Data.ODBC only Microsoft.Data.ODBC...(?)...I'd still like to know what they were thinking by not including this with the framework...and also what the diff between the two is...

Thanks again!

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Eggheads unite! You have nothing to lose but your yolks.

You say you are using Framework 1.0 version. In this version ODBC provider want included. So you must have downloaded it from microsoft. This provider is implmented in Microsoft.Data.ODBC namespace. From version 1.1 ODBC provider is included in framework in System.Data.ODBC namespace.

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