Andres on Remoting Datasets...
Andres Aguiar , the superbrain behind Deklarit responds to Rory's comments on Stuart's post.
<<As I cannot comment in Stuart's blog, I'll do it here ;)
a) He's right about that if you are not going to update data, then it's probably not a good idea to use a DataSet, unless you only want to use it with .NET clients and are willing to pay the serialization overhead.
b) He's wrong with the DataSet/Database coupling one. A DataSet does not need to be coupled with the database, it can have any structure. I can return a DataSet even if I don't have a database in the backend.
c) The argument about sharing types is also weak. Check http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/default.aspx?date=2004-06-03 for an interesting point of view. In DCOM you _cannot_ invoke a service if you don't have the type. In WebServices with a DataSet, you can, even if you are in Java. Also, if you return a typed dataset, you don't need to have the same _type_ on the other side of the wire, just an equivalente DataSet. >>