One of the major advances that appears between Visual Studio 6 and the .NET programming languages is the transformation that occurred with ASP. ASP arose out of the need to have a programming language for Web pages, and its earliest rendition was little more than a glorified notepad system that allowed a user to weave together HTML code with some simple scripting. By the time Visual Studio 6 appeared, ASP had gone through dramatic changes, and had taken some of the controls from VB to add to its toolbox, as well as a more dynamic server-side scripting language.

With the transition to ASP.NET, ASP may be the biggest gainer in terms of new features. This book is designed to be as relentlessly practical as possible. It begins with a chapter on setting up IIS. This can be the first stumbling block that anyone new to Web-based programming will encounter. Then the author spends some time discussing the structure of VB.NET, and many of the special features that come in the transition to .NET.

The author then focuses on the special features of ASP.NET: code behind pages, the web.config file, event handling, Web controls, validation controls and other rich controls, state management, tracking, logging and error handling, and deploying ASP.NET.

One of the most important characteristics of any rich Internet programming language is database access. The author goes through ADO.NET with painstaking care and attention to detail. He covers data binding as well as the data-bound controls. He has an entire chapter focusing on XML. He also discusses dealing with non-traditional data sources: fields, streams, and e-mail. The author then finishes the book with an in-depth discussion of Web services.

This book is an excellent way for an experienced programmer to learn ASP.NET.