By Steve Harris and Rob Macdonald
BY NOW, MOST DEVELOPERS will have heard of ASP.NET and will have seen it in action. In fact, it’s a pretty sure bet that if you’ve bought this book then you already have it installed, maybe with Visual Studio .NET, and there’s a good chance you’ve tried a few things out. You probably already know that ASP.NET brings an objectoriented and event-driven programming model to the world of Web development and that it can dramatically simplify the structure and creation of Web applications. You might, like us, be really excited about the possibilities and improvements it brings, or you might just see it as a tool you can use to save a bit of time so you can get to the game earlier or spend more time with your kids. Either way, you can’t afford to ignore it—ASP.NET is big news and plays a key role in Microsoft’s .NET strategy.
ASP.NET solves many of the problems that currently face Web developers, and it greatly simplifies the tasks of creating, debugging, and deploying Web applications. It’s radically different from its predecessors in many ways, but it shares a common heritage and background to some. It requires that you learn new skills and forget about some you already have. It’ll take time to master, but that investment will be repaid many times over once you start working with it in earnest. In short, it’s what many Web developers have been asking for over the past few years.