PDA

View Full Version : What is ASP.NET


icelava
22-11-2003, 14:35
Originally posted by Hostings
But anyone here mind differentiating the difference between ASP and ASP.NET?
If you are unfamiliar with .NET Framework, and .NET in general, it's gonna take awhile for you to sink the idea and concept in. I know it did for me the first time I printed > 200 pages of .NET Framework whitepaper and related documents. In fact, one of the major failings of Microsoft was its exceedingly obscure marketing and definition of .NET.

I am one who hates to duplicate materials already prepared by others (and in some effect stealing their credit). I will attempt to provide a concise summary while linking you to the _heavy_ stuff for your own consumption.

The ASP.NET Page framework serves to make the web page interface behave as though it was a normal Windows GUI app. If you have programmed Windows apps before, then you will know the event-driven model that lets you place hooks into events that occur from user's input to the interface controls. (eg. Click on button "Save"). These hooks are event handlers, which you write code to define what happens after an event is raised.

In essence, the HTML page is abstracted away from your interface logic. This is done by means of Web Controls, meaning you place tags like <asp:Button id="SaveButton" runat="Server"/> or <asp:TextBox id="EmailTextBox" runat="Server"/> and your code references them as Button or TextBox controls NOT the raw <input> tag that you would in classic ASP.

It also introduces the concept of Code-behind, whereby your code is living in another file away from the HTML-layout .aspx page. No more fragile "spaghetti code" littered all over your page, your designer and programmer don't have to argue anymore.

And because ASP.NET is simply a subset of the .NET Framework, which is entirely object-oriented, developing n-layered architectures of components across a uniform programming environment makes it so much easier than using traditional COM/+ components.

Given this abstraction from HTML, you can written interface controller logic that works for both ASP.NET Web Forms and Windows Forms (the traditional GUI apps), promoting alot of code re-use.

The propaganda site (http://www.microsoft.com/net/)
What is .NET? (http://www.microsoft.com/net/basics/)

Why ASP.NET? (http://asp.net/whitepaper/whyaspnet.aspx?tabindex=0&tabid=1)
What Is the Microsoft .NET Framework? (http://www.microsoft.com/net/basics/framework.asp)

What .NET Means for IT Professionals (http://www.microsoft.com/net/business/it_pros.asp)
Microsoft .NET for IT Professionals (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/itsolutions/net/evaluate/itpronet.asp?frame=true)

icelava
22-11-2003, 14:41
Btw Hostings, I won't comment on JSP simply because i have no practical experience with it. Not that it's bad or anything, for I believe J2EE sure has enough power to do the same thing .NET Framework can.

What floored me about .NET is how easy the entry path to development is now, things that were just so difficult and arcane are made simple and convenient for the developer to achieve. It was with .NET, along with the big personalities behind it, that persuaded me to leave my administrator/manager job in Webvisions to become a developer.

Hostings
22-11-2003, 16:10
Thanks. Will spend some time reading it further.

chrisranjana
14-12-2003, 17:47
Yes microsoft is really promoting .NET indeed !

icelava
14-12-2003, 21:57
Not promoting. They're staking the entire business on it.

userguy
16-12-2003, 12:05
Originally posted by icelava
Not promoting. They're staking the entire business on it.
Agreed. For example, they have even integrated Microsoft .NET framework into their Windows platform.

icelava
16-12-2003, 17:44
Microsoft .NET is a vision of the future of computing, the .NET Framework is just the application development platform to ride towards that vision.