Professional ASP.NET 3.5 SP1 Edition: In C# and VB

Introduction

Simply put, ASP.NET 3.5 is an amazing technology to use to build your Web solutions! When ASP.NET 1.0 was introduced in 2000, many considered it a revolutionary leap forward in the area of Web application development. ASP.NET 2.0 was just as exciting and revolutionary, and ASP.NET 3.5 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is continuing a forward march in providing the best framework today in building applications for the Web. ASP.NET 3.5 SP1 continues to build on the foundation laid by the release of ASP.NET 1.0 by focusing on the area of developer productivity.

This book covers the whole of ASP.NET. It not only introduces new topics, it also shows you examples of these new technologies in action. So sit back, pull up that keyboard, and enjoy!

A Little Bit of History

Before organizations were even thinking about developing applications for the Internet, much of the application development focused on thick desktop applications. These thick-client applications were used for everything from home computing and gaming to office productivity and more. No end was in sight for the popularity of this application model.

During that time, Microsoft developers developed thick-client applications using mainly Visual Basic (VB).

Visual Basic was not only a programming language — it was tied to an IDE that allowed for easy thick-client application development. In the Visual Basic model, developers could drop controls onto a form, set properties for these controls, and provide code behind them to manipulate ...