I thought the laugh line “Object-Relational Mapping is the Vietnam of Computer Science” was ancient, but Ted Neward claims that he made it up in 2004. Ted has written an immense, detailed, essay on the subject, The Vietnam of Computer Science, which, just to be thorough, includes a capsule history of the Vietnam conflict. This ought to be required reading for all Computer Science undergrads, so they’ll at least be forewarned before they stumble into their own private Southeast Asia. Bonus: in the comments, the first commenter asks “If ORM = Vietnam, does SOA = Iraq?”
