EF Model First or Code First Approach?

Question

I know this question has been asked numerous times before as I’ve read quite a few posts on the topic about the pros and cons etc but I still can’t decide which approach is

Answer 1

I’ve looked at both approaches and I do favour Entity Model approach only because I like simplicity of the designer and I like seeing the whole model in front me, it shows the overall picture in one snapshot. Also, me not being a strong programmer I am impressed with the way it generates the POCO’s using the DbContext generator template and does all the linking between the classes.

+

Mapping entities to the database via configuration classes I find impossible :).

= use model first

If it’s good practice to create buddy classes why can’t I find many tutorials showing this for MVC 3? Are Buddy Classes another name for View Models? And why can’t I find any tutorials by Microsoft showing these buddy/view models in use with MVC 3?

This might be because the code-first is something like a new kid in the block. That's why there are mostly code-first tutorial for MVC3. Model-first is 'much' older and was probably most favourited solution in times of MVC2.

Btw: You already know my oppinion, that you should use, what you like best or find most comfortable (as I told you last time you asked about this), but I just wanted to add something here :)

Edit after comments:

Take a look at these things, that will help you with code first a lot imo:

Creating an Entity Framework Data Model for an ASP.NET MVC Application (1 of 10) Scaffold your ASP.NET MVC 3 project with the MvcScaffolding package

++ these great videos from MIX11 at channel9:
Scott Hanselman showing new stuff in his awesome way as usually
Steve Sanderson showing power of MvcScaffolding