Active Server Pages 3.0 from Scratch

Using Visual InterDev

Like HTML, you can create ASPs with nothing but a text editor, such as Notepad on Windows or vi on Unix, but Microsoft has a tool that can make your life easier. Called Visual InterDev, it's part of the Visual Studio suite of products, and the current version, 6.0, introduces Design Time Controls (DTCs), which are designed to automate the process of building pages. Because you want to learn the actual workings of ASPs, we're not using any of those DTCs. However, InterDev can still make your life easier by color-coding your pages and offering a few other features.

If you have Visual InterDev, install it, and restart your machine if prompted. When your machine has restarted, make sure that the Web server is running. You're ...