irasmith

Thanks for the clarification on the matter. That is really cool to me that those options are there for us to use if we need them. The more I work on learning about .NET, the better I like it :cool:

I may have found a potential solution to my question, so here goes. In VS.NET 2003, I right click on a project and select Properties. Under Common Properties, under General, I click in the Supported Runtimes field, and then click on the elipses button that becomes visible. There is a box that comes up indicating that VS.NET 2003 only builds for the .NET Framework 1.1, but that I can configure the application to run on .NET Framework 1.0. Naturally there is a warning indicating that not all 1.1 features are available in 1.0. Then it lets me select either the default 1.1 or the second option of both frameworks. Just thought I'd share the information I found and I'll be looking to see if VS.NET 2005 has this same option.

Thank you for letting me know how that will work. My main concern was not to jump the gun so to speak. I did not want to obtain VS.NET 2005 and load it before I was done working on my MCAD certification at the VS.NET 2003 level. I've started working on the certification and want to stay focused on one version and not deal with any other version until I am certified. :)

Does anyone know if within VS.NET 2005 you will be able to access different .NET framework versions? I realize that you would not have the advantages of the newer items available in the 2.0 .NET framework, but I was wondering if you would be able to have one version of VS.NET, yet still from within that version work with and continue to program your programs that are in a lower version of the .NET framework, such as those programs you are creating now with VS.NET 2003.

VS.NET has the community edition of Dotfuscator included with it, which is one of the obfuscators available for .NET. The companies site is found at PreEmptive Solutions There are a couple of editions of the product you can acquire, each doing more than the product below it. I have not tried this yet, but I am presuming that if you use an obfuscator of some type, then the ability to decompile the program with the tool included in the .NET sdk will not work. Am I correct on this point?

Ooohhhh, that does sound like a nice deal, especially for a solo developer or for use here at home with my VS.NET 2003 Professional package, which by default does not have VSS included with it. I'll certainly check that out :)

Wow, the new version control system sounds really cool. Seems it will be something I will need to investigate for sure when VS.NET 2005 is officially out. :cool:

Thanks so much for the clarification on the questions I had. This does sound like a promising path for me to explore so I will certainly look into it further. It might be some time before I get to the VS.NET 2005 version of VSS since the projects that I am inheriting are done in VS.NET 2003, but this is a starting point for sure :)

To get the MCAD, you can specialize in the area of interest to you, web or win. I am opting for web because I have recently inherited several web projects at work and know this is where my time and effort will go, so why not get certified in that area. So I am planning on taking 70-315, then 70-320, then 70-229. This will give me the web with 70-315, XML with 70-320, and database design and implementation with 70-229 (figure would need the knowledge for that since basically all web apps now need a datastore to work from). Looking further out into the future, the MCSD certification (if I make it that far), I would need only two other exams. 70-316 is where I could pick up win for C#, and then the required 70-300 exam. All other requirements or electives for the MCSD would already have been met with my work above on the MCAD. I am focusing on C# because the projects that I inherited were/are being done in that language, a decision made before my involvement by higher ups. I realize there are many ways in which to combine the exams, and I think it is great that MS has laid out a format which allows you to focus in on the area of your interest for the certification.

I am using the Developing and Implementing Web Applications with Visual C#.NET and Visual Studio.NET book. I realize this isn't the exam you are studying for since you are going the Windows based route and I am going the Web based route, but if you look the book up then there are links to other books in the series, some of which are for the Windows route of the exams. I haven't looked to see if there are any devoted to VB.NET since I am focusing in on C#.NET instead. Hope this helps. I realize the book may not be to everyones liking, but I am very happy with it.

I know Visual Source Safe is supposed to help change control in team environments, but if you are in a solo environment is there still advantages to be gained from using it? Sorry if the question seems a bit entry level, but I've never used the product before, never had my hands on a copy of it, and have only VS.NET 2003 Professional which does not have Visual Source Safe with it. Just checking on things to see if it would be worth upgrading to whatever level has it with it.

I did not realize this particular one was from an upper management level, but all the better to know that it is. Perhpas this is their way of taking a lead in helping to curb all the debates on the matter and lead the focus back to the point at hand. As I look at it, they have provided a choice to appeal to a broader spectrum of developers. Just because I choose to go one way and someone else another, that in no way means anything bad about either of us. We each simply have exercised the freedom provided to us to choose what we want to use. We all should be thanking the providers for permitting us to choose what we want to use with the design built in so that the end result of our efforts can work side by side, even together, resulting in wider use of each of our products. :)

Yes, this blog entry is very interesting and very well done. I'm happy to see someone from the dev team present something like this. Hopefully it will help with the point that it's not about the language anymore. Use what you are happy with, what you are comfortable with, and let the beauty of the managed code system allow your code and my code, written in two different langagues, work in harmony with each other :cool:

If your ASP.NET web page is called Default.aspx, and if you code in C#, then your code behind page would be named Default.aspx.cs. Using code behind is the preferred way of doing things in the commercial arena, at least as I see it, since presentation and coding can be separated, keeping each independent of the other. You can place your program code right in the ASP.NET page though if you want to and avoid using code behind. Not something per say I would suggest in the commercial arena since your code is right there so anyone who has a copy of your ASP.NET pages can see your code. Web surfers won't see it though since it is compiled before being served up by the web server. It does make things harder to maintain since both ASP.NET and C# coding are mixed together. Depending on what you are attempting to do, you may find that something like C# Standard edition or VB.NET Standard edition will suit your needs of providing a Visual Studio interface to work within. I first began my research into .NET last year with a VB.NET Standard. This year I moved on up to Visual Studio .NET Professional. I purchased my copy from an on line seller and it cost quite a bit less than the $1,000 suggested retail price. If you shop around some you can find some pretty good deals. Hope this helps. I would suggest just taking a bit of time, doing some research while considering what it is you are trying to accomplish. I know that an IDE such as VS.NET can be expensive, but given what it can do for you it might be the best choice to take. It will all depend on how much you plan to code, the purpose your coding will serve, and how much time you want to spend doing it.

Well good luck to you on your upcoming exam. I'm presently studying for my first one, 70-315. Just started about two weeks ago so not too terribly far into the material yet. I am enjoying learning the language though and finding all sorts of cool things about it. :)

Wow, it really is the simple things that will get you ;) Thanks for the tip. I have no idea why I had never just tried that in the past, but I hadn't. Gave it a try though to compose this reply and works like a charm. Thanks for the tip :cool:

If you want to know in general terms what a web cms system is, this article should help get you started in the right direction. It is the first in a series of four articles that I have composed. At the end of each article is a link to the next article so you should be able to follow them through from start to finish. None of them are very long as I wanted to make it an easy read that can be taken in during a reasonable amount of time yet still be informative. For a demonstration of a website that is ran by a cms system, my site is one such site. It is driven by a cms package known as PostNuke, a system written in the PHP language with MySQL as the back end database. Now, I know how some are loyal to their language of choice, so please do not feel tht I am saying this is the only solution. I happened to come across it first and really like the way it works. But I am also planning to develope a site driven by one of the Microsoft languages used in another cms package. One package written in a Microsoft language, VB.NET to be exact, can be found at the home site of DotNetNuke. I am learning C#.NET for work related projects, so my personal taste is leaning more toward a cms package called Rainbow which is written in C#.NET. There is a new version of it in the works under the code name of vNext which is targeting ASP.NET 2.0. So far from what I gather, DotNetNuke has more of a following but since I am working on learning C# for work and actually studying to attempt the MCAD certification, I'm leaning toward Rainbow for my .NET based cms site. Hope this helps you out.

You might want to look in the properties area when you have the check box in focus and check to see what the AutoPostBack is set to. I am just starting to work with ASP.NET and C#, and noticed that is an option you have when you place a checkbox on the webform. Naturally though I'd be careful about doing this since when the box changes you take a hit back to the webserver to update things. Hope this helps out, and like I said, just working on learning this stuff myself so if I have spoken incorrectly those more knowledgable will have to let me know.

If you visit this Microsoft page you can see several levels of the MSDN subscription. Depening on which level you subscribe to will determine in part the cost. The fee is something you pay annually to keep enrolled in the service. Presently I am not a subscriber simply because I am just starting out and at the moment do not need the full range of products it delivers. The benefit from it is to provide developers with access to all the tools and packages that they need to set up development and test environments from within which to perform their product creation. It is by far cheaper to acquire an MSDN subscription than it is to try going out and buying one of everything in the list of stuff it provides. So to a degree you can still further control your cost and investment by determining if you need everything the full featured package delivers or perhaps you can start out smaller and grow your business to need those extra things. I tend to start out small and work to grow it large simply because I would otherwise get bogged down in the detail of it all and spend my time learning about everything rather than just sticking with what I know and working with that. (Yes, I'm that much of a geek ;) )

Might be nice to have the login available when inside a particular forum. Right now I can find the login only on the home page. If I am looking through the forums and want to make a post, I have to back out to the home page, login, then go back to the forum of interest. Hopefully I am not missing a shortcut, but if I am please let me know :)

Even though it may be a bit odd to reply to one's own posting with an answer, I thought I'd take the opportunity and be the oddball and do just that so I could share some information with you. ;) In researching my original question, I have found what appears to be a very good book, Software Requirements 2nd Edition I have the book in hand, have already read some of it, and have reviewed the table of contents. This to me is a pretty awesome book. I think this book is just what I need to be able to come up with my own format of requirement and enhancement forms. Now, back to studying :cool:

Not a problem. I always appreciate input and differing views just so I can make sure I am doing things right. Would rather find out now if there was a problem with my plan than to find out later after all the work and effort has been invested. Take care and have a great day :)