Chapter 1. Understanding Microsoft's Web Technologies

In This Chapter

  • Exploring Microsoft's tools for creating Web pages

  • Understanding the technologies behind dynamic content

  • Delving client-side and server-side programming

  • Pinpointing the roles of LINQ, DHTML, XML, XAML, and AJAX

  • Deciphering postbacks and page refreshes

In the beginning, the World Wide Web (WWW) was flat. It was an electronic library where academics and scientists posted dissertations and dusty data for reading with clunky, text-only browsers. With the advent of graphical browsers, the consumer-oriented Web took off. Content became vastly more colorful. Remember where you were the first time you experienced the exciting <blink> and <marquee> tags? (I bet you wish you could forget those gems!) Anyway, the Web has evolved as a rich, interactive, and personalized medium.

In the new version of Web (Web 2.0), functional pages aren't enough. User experience (abbreviated as UX in geekspeak) is hot, and sites are cool. This chapter looks at Microsoft's tools and technologies for creating and delivering engaging Web content.

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