Microsoft’s Visual Studio 2008 introduces a whole new set of .NET technologies that will revolutionize, once again, the way you develop smart client and web-based applications; the most notable being LINQ, WPF and, of course, Silverlight. For most of us working in and around web application development in the business world, Silverlight is a big step forward; especially if you consider that it provides clean coding practices with extensible languages (e.g. XAML and C#). It also provides some of Visual Studio’s rich programming model that we have become accustomed to and can no longer live without; such as class libraries, debugging capabilities and IntelliSense among many others.
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When Microsoft created .NET, it wasn’t just dreaming about the future—it was also worrying about the headaches and limitations of the current generation of web development technologies. Before you get started with ASP.NET 2.0, it helps to take a step back and consider these problems. You’ll then understand the solution that .NET offers.

In this chapter you’ll consider the history of web development leading up to ASP.NET, take a whirlwind tour of the most significant features of .NET, and preview the core changes in ASP.NET 2.0. If you’re new to ASP.NET, this chapter will quickly get you up to speed. On the other hand, if you’re a seasoned .NET developer, you have two choices. Your first option is to read this chapter for a brisk review of where we are today. Alternatively, you can skip to the section “ASP.NET 2.0: The Story Continues” to preview what ASP.NET 2.0 has in store.
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