Beginning ASP.NET 3.5 in C# 2008: From Novice to Professional, Second Edition

6.1. Stepping Up to Web Controls

Now that you've seen the new model of server controls, you might wonder why you need additional web controls. But in fact, HTML controls are much more limited than server controls need to be. For example, every HTML control corresponds directly to an HTML tag, meaning you're bound by the limitations and abilities of HTML. Web controls, on the other hand, have no such restriction. They emphasize the future of web design.

These are some of the reasons you should switch to web controls:

They provide a rich user interface

A web control is programmed as an object but doesn't necessarily correspond to a single element in the final HTML page. For example, you might create a single Calendar or GridView control, which ...