ORM Goes Open Source

grd000 writes "I have been using Olero Software's Object Relational Mapping and Code Generation Tool (ORM) for Microsoft .NET for the last year or so with great success. I'm delighted to say that yesterday, the Olero folks decided to release their $495 tool as open source. I'm not sure what prompted the decision. Sluggish sales? In any event, this is a boon for .NET developers. ORM speeds up development by generating a C# or VB-targeted object based on a given database schema. Inserts, updates and deletes can be performed using simple or complex criteria in just a few lines of source code, and with transactional support."

Comments

with mono, this will run on Linux right?

[xutopia]

right?

Re:with mono, this will run on Linux right?

[Skeezix]

It appears to use Windows.Forms which isn't really supported on Mono yet. However, Novell has a team working hard on a new Windows.Forms implementation, so it's just a matter of time...

SourceForge link to news

[Futurepower(R)]

The only news I can find is on SourceForge: Olero Software is no longer able to continue supporting ORM.NET.

what about Hibernate

[zaqattack911]

Anyone know if Hibernate is working on something like this?

Sorta seems like the same thing to me.

Re:Too bad

[Godeke]

As far as I can tell, this isn't a library, but a code generator so being under GPL makes little difference for daily use. Output from GPL software is *not* constrained by the GPL, only changes to the code generator *itself* would have to be given back to the community, not any project that used generated code.

Or has Microsoft etc all done such a good job of convincing people the GPL is evil that you think that using GCC or the GIMP means my code/image is somehow GPLed by magic?

The Future of ORM.NET

[dhclab49]

Here's the text of an email sent out over the weekend to customers of the commercial version, explaining the move:
---
From: Olero Support [mailto:support@olero.com]
Sent: Sunday, August 29, 2004 11:33 PM
To: XXX XXXXX
Subject: The Future of ORM.NET

The Future of ORM.NET

Dear ORM.NET Customers and Supporters,

Olero Software is no longer able to continue supporting ORM.NET. We apologize for the lack of communication over the last couple of months and any inconveniences this may have caused you.

We still believe in ORM.NET as a valuable tool and, therefore, have decided to make the source code available to everyone via SourceForge.NET. We hope this will allow current customers the ability to continue to use and make improvements to the tool. It will also allow us -time permitting - to make improvements and fix defects.

Please submit bug reports via the SourceForge site.
We will still be actively fixing any bugs reported and supporting paid customers
We will be working to improve the online documentation.
If you are interested in development/CVS access to the ORM.NET source tree, please put in a request!
For the latest version and complete source go to: http://sourceforge.net/projects/orm-net/

Sincerely,
Olero Software

Maintenance

[alex_tibbles]

One-time Object Relational Mapping code generation is only useful if you get the data structure right first time and the requirements don't change. This rarely happens, in my experience. Martin Fowler's (of Refactoring, Analysis Patterns fame) employer offer a consultancy service (I read in one of Fowler's articles) for automatic DB change management, tied in with code changes. The other way to do it is all at runtime and in code, but you need runtime support for class creation etc. (like in CLOS-MOP). This works by having the simplest, most general way of accessing data, but you have to handle all the possibilities at runtime.
Summary: needs way of keeping generated code in synch with changing DB schema.