C# 2010 All-in-One For Dummies®

Chapter 2. Building Web Applications

In This Chapter

• Working in Visual Studio

• Developing with Style

• Modeling the View Controller

There is a lot to Web development. People used to ask me what language I programmed in. I told them I was a Web developer.

"No, really, what language do you program in?" they would ask.

"Web. It's seven languages. Seven that I have to know. Criminy, is it really seven?"

At the time, it was seven. I needed to know SQL, VBScript, XML, Visual Basic, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. At least it is a little better now. You can get by without C++, which was once required. Oh, and C# can replace Visual Basic. The rest ...

With Visual Studio in the mix, things are a little easier than they once were. You have two considerations when you choose Visual Studio to be your tool of choice to build a Web application. The first is the tool itself. The second is the way you are going to use the tool, or your methodology.

If you've been working with the samples in this book, working in Visual Studio is going to feel very familiar. There is a design view for the user interface. Code View works just like the Code View in all the other environments. The only caveat is the unusual file types that you will see occasionally in Web applications. You'll get used to those. I did.

The methodology debate — that is, which methodology works better — is harder to get used to because it is a religious war. People will tell you to use one or the other for this reason and that. I do the same thing here. ...