Question

Simple question for which I think I have an answer but I am looking for a sounding board. Should the DAL be the one translating whatever comes from the database (be it through straight SQL, stored procedures, ORM, whatever) into Domain Entities as understood by the business layer?
On a separate note, should all Domain Entities be defined by an Interface (if nothing else, to minimize dependencies) ?

Answer 1

Should the DAL be the one translating
whatever comes from the database (be
it through straight SQL, stored
procedures, ORM, whatever) into Domain
Entities as understood by the business
layer?

In my opinion, yes. I’m not sure there is a hard and fast rule though.

On a separate note, should all Domain
Entities be defined by an Interface
(if nothing else, to minimize
dependencies) ?

In my opinion, no. That may end up in a lot of interfaces that add no value. YAGNI.