title: What are the pros and cons of using Visual Studio designer components for data
body: <p>I'm inheriting a bunch of programs at work where the original author used Microsoft Visual Studio's data components (where a dataset, data adaptor, etc) are creating inside the design environment (from the toolbox or using wizards).  This yields some semi-tailored (specialized for the data) classes, and also puts the SQL code into designer generated classes.</p>
  
  <p>This is not how I'm used to doing things (I've always preferred to either unambiguously have a dataset, or create my own specialized class to hold the data and hide the complexity of the underlying data layer).</p>
  
  <p>Does anyone have some good insight or links discussing the pros and cons of using Visual Studio data components?</p>
  
  <p>(A side note, the original author also didn't comment very thoroughly and wrote, for my tastes, a bit too much "clever" code that is not easily interpreted, so I'm not inclined to think he knows any better than I.)</p>
  
  <p>I suppose another way of asking is this:  Does using the data designer components result in code that is "following best practices" and is maintainable, etc?  It doesn't seem so to me, but I'm looking for input from experts.</p>
  
  <p>[EDIT: Added some more context for clarification of intent]</p>
  
  <p>If I'm right (and it looks like I am) about using designer components really being best suited for prototypes, etc, then I'm going to have to go have some tough conversations with the original developers and my manager.  So I'd like to add more emphasis on "links discussing pros and cons" part of my question... I'm looking for something substantial I can use to support my claims that this style of development / code isn't the most appropriate for production use...  Thanks.</p>