So, following on from the earlier post about using some sort of embedded database in a .NET application, my question on StackOverflow has been answered with the recommendation to use SQL Server Compact Edition.
It’s a mad little beast, integrating into Visual Studio 2008 to the point where I can – in the designer – link the database to a DataGridView and see the data… before even running the code. Then something weird happens and there turns out to be no data in the database, but the code compiles and doesn’t give weird runtime errors.
So now I guess most of the effort will be learning how to do all the stuff I’ve been doing in the grown-up version of SQL Server on the compact edition. I can’t seem to find a simple beginner’s document to read though, it’s all a bit random clicking on things in the MSDN.
I can do all this stuff using the full version of SQL Server, but the Compact Edition has several things stripped out, like stored procedures and views. I guess I’ll be mashing SQL into text strings in the code then. Joy.
