Tracing the history of Microsoft Data Access APIs

Mike Pizzo of the Data Programmability team at Microsoft has just kicked off what looks to be a very interesting series of articles which will culminate in Programming in the Conceptual Model, or what is better known as ADO.NET Entities & LINQ. Mike has been involved with data access APIs from Microsoft for many years, and has an excellent historical understanding of the thinking that has gone into many of the Microsoft data access APIs. In fact I was able to recently to quiz him 1:1 about about his early experiences in working with the much loved (some might say maligned) Microsoft Excel data access models. For anyone looking to understand the train of thought that is inexorably leading of to ADO.NET Orcas, I'd recommend this blog entry as an essential reading; and I'll post again when Mike posts subsequent articles in the series.