Very confused about ASP .NET & VB .NET

I am trying to ditch ColdFusion as my main web app builder. I am starting to look at the Visual Studio .NET framework (concentrating on ASP .NET and Visual Basic .NET). I am getting a little confused though and here is my question.

Can I build a web app using only VB .Net (no ASP .NET at all) or only ASP .NET (no VB .NET at all)?
If I can combine them (ASP .NET and VB .NET) can I do development in the Visual Studio .NET IDE? It looks like one has to choose one of them.


I am asking because, I have not yet a chance to read deeper.

Thanks

ASP.NET isn't a language. It's what they call .NET generated internet applications. They can be written in any of the .NET languages. Yes you can do the development in the IDE. Once everything is installed (including IIS, which should be installed before .NET), then choose File... New... Project... Web Application.

Think of it this way...

ASP.NET is an environment.

VB.NET, C#, J# is a language.

You can use any of the languages to make asp.net applications, services, etc..

When you want to use vb.net to make desktop applications, you would inherit the Windows Form class. (dialog windows if you will)

When you want to use vb.net to make asp.net pages, you would inherit the Web Form class (web pages).

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Can I build a web app using only VB .Net (no ASP .NET at all) or only ASP .NET (no VB .NET at all)?

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You will notice that when you go to create a new asp.net web application that it is located under the VB.NET (or other languages) root folder. So you use vb.net (or other language) to make an asp.net application, service, etc..

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If I can combine them (ASP .NET and VB .NET) can I do development in the Visual Studio .NET IDE? It looks like one has to choose one of them.

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Yes you can do it all under one roof in the Visual Studio .NET IDE. This is assuming you get the VS.NET Studio >= Professional version and not a single .NET Language IDE.

If that's confusing, I agree. Maybe someone else can give some better examples. :)

Thanks folks. What confused me is what I found in the rextbook (ASP .NET Unleashed) that I bought. This book has a lot of HTML tags and other tags such as

<Script Runat="Server">

...

<asp:Panel ID="pn1Form1" Runat="Server">

I did not see those kinds of tags during my first tutorial (building a web app) in Visual Studio .NET. All I saw was V/Basic code. Let me see how I can incorporate the sample code with such tags into apps developed in VS .NET.

How is works is the VB code generates HTLM that get sent to the client browser. Also, when in design view, you can either view the page your working on visually or as HTML... when in HTML mode you can add your own HTML if you want.

Related to all this, do we need to have installed the whole VS.NET instead of the stand alone VB.NET ? Most of you are referencing to the entire languages suite and makes me wondering if I did a terrible mistake by buying only the VB.NET version.

dtv,

U can still develop ASP.NET apps without the help of the VS.NET "ASP" IDE. U gotta create a virtual directory manually and then a txt file with ".aspx" and code it

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U can still develop ASP.NET apps without the help of the VS.NET "ASP" IDE.

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Though its MUCH easier, and productive to use some sort of IDE.

Try Borlands C#Builder if you dont like Visual Studio.NET .

I got started with ASP.NET using WebMatrix, which is available free from HERE Of course you it does not have code behind by default, although you can do it. And it does not have intellisense, which I miss from time to time. But I think it is a good starting place and less confusing than the VS IDE, which I have used for ASP.NET Server control development. Most of my companies intranet, which I wrote, was developed in WebMatrix.

The price is right, as in free, and combine that with a free download of the .NET Framework SDK and you can be developing .aspx pages for free in no time.

Greg