Making the switch from ASP to ASP.NET

[omalleytrading]

Hey folks. I've been coding ASP for years now, and I'm wondering if I should start the switch over to ASP.NET. I'd like to hear a few comments about whether this is a good idea, or "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"?

My other question is, how should I go about it? I do most of my coding now right in a plain text editor. Should I continue this approach with .NET, or should I force myself to learn Visual Studio? I've got Visual Basic.NET 2003 Standard. Will that make it easier in the long run?

Lastly, can anyone recommend a good book and/or web site for transitioning from classic ASP to ASP.NET?

[large_nostril]

My suggestion would be to stay with ASP. I learned ASP.NET but prefer ASP to .NET becuase I'm more comfortable with it. In my opinion, there aren't that many great improvements in .NET to warrant the transition. And if you do decide to use .NET, continue with plain text. Sure the .NET editors have features that can make things simpler and faster but in the long run, if something doesn't work it's almost impossible to fix it because, that's right, you didn't write the code. These are some good books if you want:
ASP.NET Bible
SAMS - ASP.NET for Developers
Microsoft ASP.NET Fast & Easy Web Development

[Creosote]

By all means, I would use Visual Studio if you have it. Why hand code things in a text editor which Visual Studio will automattically code for you?

[neiljaywarner]

what did you end up doing? Is there any dealbreaker reasons?

[amtrac24]

i coded in asp for a while years back...now im in asp.net...You have to be kidding me saying there aren't any great improvements.

The main advantages in asp.net
1. You can actually debug the dam thing
2. It feels and acts more like an application. There is a solution with files instead of a whole bunch of individual asp files.
3. The whole .net framework saves you a good amount of time because there classes reduce the amount of writing you have to do.

Yes asp to asp.net is actually a pretty steep learning curve, but well worth it in the end.

and no you can't use a text pad. The code behind pages (server side code) needs to be compiled before it is released to a server. Therefore you need visual studio unless you want to find some shady other ide to compile your code.

[amtrac24]

the new visual stupio lets you step into your javascript and xslt code too!

That is a huge benefit alone!

[jkrohn]

and no you can't use a text pad. The code behind pages (server side code) needs to be compiled before it is released to a server. Therefore you need visual studio unless you want to find some shady other ide to compile your code.

Well, not entirely true, your pages no longer need to be precompiled now. You can use either precompiled pages as a CodeBehind or you can use the same .CS or .VB files that are compiled at runtime then cached until the source file is changed as a CodeFile instead.

Even if you did use a CodeBehind you would simply have to setup a build script or batch file to run the files through the CSC compiler which is available for free as part of the .Net SDK. This would produce the same DLLs and you would just need to copy them to your bin.

With all that being said I still recommend Visual Studio as a development environment, especially for a beginner. Intellisense will help you know what is available natively when you are first starting. You don't have to use and of the design functions (where it generates your code) if you don't want to. You can hand code all of the interface for both web apps as well as desktop apps if you are so inclined.