just looking for some feedback on this... i'm thinking about writing a small application that would analyze hibernate mapping files together with the .NET classes and metadata from the database to spot errors or provide warnings for things that might cause problems or could be mapped in a better way.

would there be any interest in a tool like this? and if so, what are some features that you would really like to see in such a tool?

In the Java land they have hbmlint (part of Hibernate Tools) which does this - you may want to look there for inspiration. I think it could be a nice addition, but the tool has to integrate nicely into the build process.

my first thought was to create a tool that you could use during development for troubleshooting or for finding possible improvements... but it is a good idea to make sure it can be used in the build process as well.

btw, the application would of course be open source...

I think that an applicable use that Sergey might be referring to would be in a continuous integration environment. You could run this tool as part of a build process when people commit code changes and include a report in the list of build reports.

Ooh kinda like FxCop for NHibernate.... NhCop!

yup, very similar to FxCop... allthough not quite the same. The most important part would be detecting errors instead of simply reporting warnings. The warnings (and suggestions for possible improvements) are also very cool though, but to me the errors are the most important part.

But it's very similar to FxCop in that it would basically check a bunch of 'rules' against the mapping files (in combination with either the .NET classes or the database metadata, or both depending on what the user prefers). These rules would have different categories, such as performance, data consistency, etc...

I think this tool could be very helpful for new nhibernate users