So now you ve had a chance to read through some of the aspects of ASP.NET programming and have hopefully seen some of the benefits over its predecessor ASP. Some of those aspects are the flexibility and customization provided by the .NET Framework to which ASP.NET is attached. Although this chapter is not comprehensive, it does provide a sound overview of the new Web application development environment.

By now you should understand that ASP.NET is an extension to the .NET Framework and that it sits on top of the Common Language Runtime, providing an almost unlimited opportunity to customize and extend Web applications. It s one of the premier reasons why ASP was rewritten from the ground up and not just added onto.

The guiding light behind the rewrite was to create a better way to develop Web applications and provide more functionality. Although some traditional ASP methods have gone out with the wind, brand new and better concepts have come in. Some of those include server-side processing of code, a development environment that is integrated with Visual Studio.NET to provide drag-and-drop development, better caching, state management, and debugging support. And these are just the tip of the iceberg.

The new WebForm controls provide everything from basic labels on a page to rich controls, such as Calendars and Ad Rotators that you can drag and drop onto a Web page. No longer do you have to write a mountain of script to create a grid with functional processing. The new DataGrid