ASP .NET Kick Start

Visual Studio .NET is the premier development environment for creating .NET applications. The environment includes specialized tools for working with databases, XML files, and XML Web services. Building applications with Visual Studio .NET is a very different experience than building ASP.NET applications with a standard text editor. Visual Studio .NET performs a lot of invisible work in the background, and the environment makes a number of assumptions about the best way to build applications. It is difficult for even an experienced ASP.NET developer to use Visual Studio .NET effectively without any guidance. This book helps readers understand and begin using this complicated environment.

Stephen Walther—through his training company Superexpert AspWorkshops (www.AspWorkshops.com)—has taught workshops on building Web applications using Visual Studio .NET at NASA, Lockheed Martin, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. House of Representatives, Verizon, and others. He is the author of the book ASP.NET Unleashed and a contributing author to ASP.NET Tips, Tutorials, and Code. He got his start working with Active Server Pages by developing two large commercial Web sites. First, he created the Collegescape Web site, a Web site used by more than 200 colleges—including Harvard, Stanford, and M.I.T.—to accept online college applications (Collegescape was bought out by Petersons). Next, he created the CityAuction Web site, an auction site used by both Snap! and CitySearch (CityAuction was acquired by CitySearch). He received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Berkeley. He was a Ph.D. candidate in Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology when he became involved with the World Wide Web.