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About the Author
Kevin Yank
Kevin began developing for the Web in 1995 and is a highly respected technical author. He wrote Build your own Database Driven Website using PHP and MySQL, a practical step-by-step guide published by SitePoint, and he's co-author of the SitePoint Tech Times, a bi-weekly newsletter for technically-minded web developers. Kev believes that any good webmaster should have seen at least one episode of MacGyver.
Getting Started with ASP.NET
For years now, ASP has been the leading choice for Web developers building dynamic Web sites on Windows Web servers. Offering the simplicity of scripting with the flexibility of several languages to choose from, combined with the fact that ASP is built into every Microsoft Windows based Web server, has made ASP a difficult act to follow.
Early in 2002, Microsoft released its new platform for Internet development. Dubbed .NET, this platform included the long-awaited successor to ASP. Originally entitled ASP+, it was finally released as ASP.NET under the new naming scheme for Microsoft's Internet development products.
Compared to ASP, ASP.NET represents a leap forward both in complexity and productivity for the developer. It maintains its flexibility in the choice of language, but instead of a range of simple scripting languages, developers must choose between several full-fledged programming languages. Development in ASP.NET can require not only an understanding of HTML and Web design, but also a firm grasp on the concepts of object-oriented programming and development.
In this article, I'll introduce you to basics of ASP.NET. I'll walk you through installing it on your Web server, and take you through a couple of simple dynamic pages that demonstrate the differences between ASP.NET and other server side languages. By the end of the article I hope to show you that ASP.NET can be a little more complicated, but a lot more powerful than many of the other choices out there.