My goodness. I am in a process of comparing Delphi2005 to VS.NET 2003. Just create a simple form with connect/disconnect/exit menu-items/buttons. Connect/disconnect is against an Oracle 10g database. A datagrid on the form to show “Select * from DBA_USERS”. Both in C# (since I can’t get the Oracle ODP.NET drivers to connect in Delphi).
The way you need to define a typed dataset in VS.NET is really something from the past. You need to connect to the database using the Server Explorer, drag an object onto the canvas and save that file as an XSD-file. That file can than be used when dropping a new Dataset onto your form whilst choosing “Typed Dataset”. If you don’t want all that hassle, you are bound to using “Untyped Datasets”. Translate to normal English: you need to programmatically change Dataset/Datagrid-properties. Wow. Talking about state-of-the-art. Why let the IDE do all the work, when you can do it all by hand with the aid of the keyboard?
In Delphi you have runtime-design-time data. Forget about generating “DataMappings”. Just select a table or enter a query and it’s shown in your grid. Period.
Since I do a lot of database-programming (I’m an Oracle guy, did I tell you that?), this is a major con for VS.NET. Or a pro for Delphi2005, depends how you look at it.