I am looking at creating an application to record gym workout(set,reps, etc) and I was wondering what framework and database backend to use. I am currently thinking C# .Net 3.5 for the framework because I am familiar with it but I’m unsure about how to store the data. Originally I was thinking of xml files and parsing through them but that seems like more work then is needed. If I was to use SQL would I be able to run that from my own machine (Windows 7) and what would be the best method to connect? ODBC, LINQ etc.
Thanks in advance
Linq-to-SQL is a very easy to learn, easy to use and straightforward way to map database tables 1:1 onto domain objects in C#. You can install the free SQL Server Express editions on your machine locally, and use Linq-to-SQL against those.
It has a great set of features, visual designers, and using LINQ queries against SQL Server tables is really quite powerful to use and nice to write.
So unless you have any specific requirements (like supporting backends other than SQL Server or such), I would definitely recommend going with Linq-to-SQL first.
Tutorials: