ASP.NET 3.5 For Dummies®

Introduction

Greetings! You just entered the world of ASP.NET 3.5 For Dummies. In case you weren't told on the way in, ASP.NET is Microsoft's technology for building dynamic, interactive, data-driven Web pages. The primary tool for creating ASP.NET sites is Visual Web Developer (VWD), which you use throughout this book.

Wait a minute! An introduction to an introduction is not only wordy and redundant, it's superfluous and unnecessary.

I Know Who I Am: Who Are You?

My full name is Kenneth John Cox. I was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. I'm a former broadcast journalist (the pejorative term is spit-collector) whose hobby (long ago) was playing with computers. Somehow, I learned enough about ASP.NET to get paid for creating Web applications. When they pay you for your hobby, it sure beats working for a living!

Here's what I assume about you, gentle reader:

• You use a computer and know your way around Windows XP or Windows Vista.

• You're familiar with the World Wide Web and can connect to the Internet.

• You've created a Web page in a tool like FrontPage or Dreamweaver and probably know some HTML markup.

• You grasp basic programming concepts. The terms variable and loop don't frighten you — but you aren't necessarily a programmer.

You may have any number of reasons for digging into this ASP.NET book:

• You volunteered to create a statistics Web site for your kid's soccer league.

• You're putting your home-based business on the Web and need a data-driven page.

• You develop Web sites on platforms ...