Hello,

I hope this question is appropriate here. I really would appreciate any recommendation based on your experience.

I am not a professional programmer, but a "do it all tech guru / computer support department / webmaster / programmer" in a small company. I have fallen in love with ASP.NET and I am learnign by ding. I am in the middle of a small coding / redesign project which I do by hand-coding and I begin to feel that a little "help" might save me time and nerves...

Is the purchase of MS Vidual Studio.NET 2003 a necessary step or over the top? Does "Visual C# 2003 Standard" Software do it for a guy like me just as well? Since I have no experience with any of these packages, I am flying blind.

Thank you very much in advance for your input, sincerely yours,

Mikael

You can accomplish almost everything with WebMatrix, a free tool from MS.

http://www.asp.net/webmatrix/default...dex=4&tabId=46

Hello,

I've used Visual Studio .NET 2003, and I love it. I've also used the ASP.NET Web Matrix tool to code that stu9820 mentions, which is free; although, it requires more manual effort when in comparison to VS.NET. Also, I think Dreamweaver also supports .NET, but I've never used this tool.

Hope this helps,

Brian

Mikail,
The newest version if VS.NET (Whidbey) can not be too far away.
I would look into that before buying the current version.
When released, 60 or 90 day trials of VisualStudio.NET are quite often available so it may be worth while trying it to see if it is worth the bucks compared to Web Matrix.


======================================
They say, best men are moulded out of faults,
And, for the most, become much more the better
For being a little bad.
======================================

FYI: The new version of VS.NET (2005 or Whidbey) will be released in the second half of 2005.
So, unless you're not really in a hurry building Web sites, you're better off choosing one of the 2003 products now, and maybe upgrade next year.

In think that in your case, you could use Visual C# instead of the full Visual Studio. Check out the following FAQ for the "missing "features": http://msdn.microsoft.com/vcsharp/pr...q/default.aspx

Personally, I would really miss a number of the features they mention (especially debugging support), so I would try to go for the full version.
However, depending on the size of the organization, the budget and the projects you're building, the C# edition might be good enough too.

Also, the Web Matrix and Dreamweaver can be used with .NET. The Webmatrix has a great advantage: it's free, and it's specifically build for (and with) .NET. This allows you to quickly create .NET web sites using drag and drop, ready made components and smart coding stuff. Many concept of the Webmatrix can be found in Visual Studio and vice versa. This means once you understand the Webmatrix, it's easier to "upgrade" to Visual Studio.

Dreamweaver is reasonably good at .NET as well, although IMO, it's better at the design part than in hard-core coding. Limited "intelli sense" and integration with the .NET framework make it a difficult programming IDE sometimes.


Cheers,

Imar
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Imar Spaanjaars
Everyone is unique, except for me.
While typing this post, I was listening to: Overdue by Muse (Track 11 from the album: Showbiz) What's This?

That's a bummer that we have to wait for 2005!! I hope they make it worth the wait. I was also hoping for a Christmas release of 'Longhorn' in '04 too but MS pushed it back as well.