Team LiB
Previous Section Next Section

Chapter 2: Introducing vs .NET for Web Developers

Overview

Do you already know visual studio .NET (VS .NET)? Sure, you do! And what about Web Matrix? The new version of Visual Studio .NET for Web Developers now combines the best features of Web Matrix and good old VS .NET. Moreover, it extends the set of functions with a bunch of features that make development of web applications (called "web sites" in the new terminology) as simple as possible.

So why a completely updated development environment? There are several good reasons. Neither Web Matrix nor the current version of VS .NET has been really optimized for web site development. VS .NET was targeted to desktop development. Support of web projects was available, but especially in large projects it was annoying. For example, the Microsoft HTML editors' bad habit of defacing your code was perfectly integrated here. And although Web Matrix offered some smart new features, it wasn't appropriate for larger projects at all, because some important functions such as IntelliSense, source control, or debugging weren't available.

The new version of VS .NET fills in these gaps and provides web developers with an environment especially optimized for their needs. Here's a list of some of the features offered by the new program:

Figure 2-1 shows an integrated sample web site project being edited within VS .NET. At first sight, the differences between the old and new versions seem to be small, but after a few minutes working with the IDE you'll discover that the new environment is easier and more manageable, and offers better support than the old version.

Click To expand
Figure 2-1: Here's the new Visual Studio .NET at work.

Team LiB
Previous Section Next Section