ObjectDataSourc e SelectMethod TypeName returning a Dataset? is this really a DAL?

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re: ObjectDataSourc e SelectMethod TypeName returning a Dataset? is
this really a DAL?

Pardon my misguided email on the subject...

I'm working in asp.net 2.0 and vb.net 2005.

Say I don't want any SQL code in my presentation layer, and I want all
my SQL operations accessable through methods I've developed in vb.net
of a class I will conviently call MyDAL.

So I will have methods like DeleteIT(), UpdateIT(), InsertIT() .. but
what about GetAllOfIT()??

What should GetAllOfThis return? I ask because many of the examples
out there for DAL are in C# and return what seems like a generic type
and are defined as such:

public Lis<ITGetAllOff IT() { ... }

with TYPENAME = "IT"

and i suspect the comparable code in vb.net is :

Public Shared Function GetAllofIT() As Generic.List(IT )
and provided there is a class of IT, the TYPENAME of the
ObjectDataSourc e would be set to "IT".

But, say I don't want to have a class of IT and i don't want to use
Generics. What should my function return so that I can still use
ObjectDataSourc e, and does it even make any sense to use
ObjectDataSourc e if I won't be creating a Generic Object (and did I
even say that correctly)? LOL. And even if this is all possible, that
is, all custom methods doing all the sql operations, with no custom
class object for the entity - would this be consider typical?
acceptable or good coding?

Thanks for any help or information! especially any simple code
example of use of ObjectDatasourc e with a selectmethod and typeName
returning something like a Dataset or a DataTable.