FAQs on .Net

What are the hardware and software resources required to start experimenting with VB.Net, C#, ASP.Net etc. You have provided some information regarding this but I think it is insufficient.



PCQuest: In terms of hardware any decently powered machine will do. The more powerful and bigger your CPU, RAM, and hard, the better will be the performance. It is of course recommended that you use Win 2000 or above for this. So any hardware that runs Win 2000 properly will do. For software you will require the .Net Framework and SDK. If you wish to use a graphical interface to code, you will require Visual Studio.Net. In case you only wish to program in ASP.Net, you can opt to use ASP.Net Web Matrix (reviewed in PCQuest last month) that is free for download.

I have two OSs on my machine, Win 98 and Win 2000 server. I have put VB 6.0 on Win 98 while Win 2000 was the only operating system up till now. Is it possible to install VB.Net on a single machine?



PCQuest: Yes, you can install VB.Net to work only in Windows 2000 if you wish. 

My assumption is that I can use VB.Net for my current standalone applications in client-server environment rather then for Net-based applications. Can you comment on this?



PCQuest: You can use VB.Net to create simple Windows forms based apps, complex client server applications, Internet based programs, Web forms and Web services as well.

What are the online resources available to find exact information regarding .Net? What extra software do we have to download–that which you are not able to provide.


PCQuest: You can get all the information you require in the .Net SDK itself as it comes with comprehensive help files. You can also get more help at msdn.microsoft.com and other such sites. You will find hundreds of samples and free code to read and understand on the Web as well.

During a discussion in our group, I was told that VB.Net only supports SQLSERVER database. Can you explain this a little?



PCQuest: This is not true. VB.Net can access a large number of databases–Access, SQL Server, Oracle etc. As long as they are ODBC compliant and your system has the required driver for the database, you can access them through VB.Net. That said, it is true that VB.Net provides a separate set of classes and functions to use SQL server. If you do use these to access SQL Server you will get a major performance boost.

I have installed Visual Studio.Net Beta 1 on a Pentium IV machine running Win Me. I am able to compile and run Windows applications. I have problems in opening a project for Web applications. The S/W displays a dialog box saying that it is trying to open http://LOTUS/WebApplication directory. After some time it gives an error message and comes out. Also when I run an .ASPX file that uses Web controls in IE 5.5, the Web controls are not visible. I tried to install Visual Studio.Net Beta 1 on a Win XP machine. Here also I am not able to run .ASPX files. I don’t have IIS S/W. Please suggest a solution.



PCQuest: For running Web applications you must be able to point the program to a valid Web server where you have rights to write files. Under Windows Me, there is no such Web server and you will be unable to proceed. Same is the case with Windows XP if IIS is not installed. To create Web applications install IIS and try it again. Also VS.Net Beta 1 was extremely slow and a memory hog. As the final version of the program has been released, we recommended that you use that instead of the beta version.

I am a regular reader of PCQuest. I want some guidance from you with reference to your article on ASP.Net in PCQuest July 2002. The article gives a good exposure to the changes from ASP 3.0 to ASP.Net but what about the changes in the architecture of ASP. Though it would be too early to say that these articles do not cover the architectural changes but such a series won’t expose those changes in much depth. so being an ASP3.0 programmer I would like to know about some books which will give a good exposure to in depth

ASP.Net. 

Also how much is the IT industry taking note of VS.Net as it is heard that Microsoft is launching a new licensing policy, which is supposed to be more pocket friendly for Microsoft. The theme of my mail is whether “a programmer like me having 1.5 years experience on VS 6.0 should invest a few week on porting to

VS.Net”?



PCQuest: The articles in the series will take a look at the changes in architecture as well as how these changes benefit you when compared to classic ASP. As we go on, important structural changes, such as ability to create code behind files, Web controls, rich databound controls will all be coming your way with a lot of example code - comprehensive but simple. 


Regarding your other question, the licensing policy of Microsoft is something that i cannot comment upon from my position. However, on your question of whether you should invest time, effort and maybe even some money in migrating from VS 6 to VS.Net, our answer is “Yes”. VS.Net does have a large number of features that you’d find extremely useful and easy to learn. You will also be able to create your applications faster in whichever language you are most comfortable with and have it integrate into a larger project without any issues. 

ASP.Net also carries these changes into it. Instead of thinking of Windows programming and Web programming as two separate streams, you can now switch between these two without requiring to learn or unlearn other programming practices. You can even code your ASP.NET pages for being automatically vieable in mobile devices like PDAs and Mobile Phones! Something that would require you lots of effort in classic ASP.

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