Hi Clark,
Very Interestting, I wish I understood it all. As a Frontpage 2000
user, I have been waiting for the real next generation tool that would
"automate" a lot of the ASP stuff that you are always seeing "how do
you do --" posts about in this newsgroup.
Most of these "how do you do---" posts regarding ASP and ASP.Net are
questions that arise out of the fact that an ASP or ASP.Net web application
is just that: an application. FrontPage is not an application development
environment, like Visual Studio.Net, and only provides automated programming
of the simplest and most common web site database capabilities. The issue is
due to the fact that an ASP or ASP.Net application, like any other
application, is composed of a complex set of instructions that are at the
programmer level. This means that an ASP or ASP.Net application has the
capability of doing almost any type of operation, in a huge variety of ways.
If you pay attention to the "how do you do--" posts, you will see that they
do not represent a common set of requirements, but a large variety of
customizations. "I just want to add this *one* extra thing to my ASP.Net
database page." It just isn't possible to create a wizard that can create
virtually any type of application without making it as complicated to use as
Visual Studio.Net.
To put it another way, a program is a set of components that satisfies a set
of requirements. Think of these requirements as if you were thinking about
qualities of people, because people have a large variety of qualities in a
large variety of combinations. Now, if you were to sub-divide people into
groups based upon, for example, sex, you would end up with 2 groups of
people. To create a program that satisfies both sexes, it would only have to
have 2 choices. But now add to the mix hair color. Let's imagine that hair
color is divided up into blonde, brunette, and redhead. That's 3 categories.
But you don't have 5 choices any more, you have 6: 3 for men, and 3 for
women. Now add age group to the mix. Let's divide it into 10-year intervals,
and assume that 80 is the top limit. to be able to write a program that
accomodates everyone, you now have not 13 (2 + 3 + 8), but 48 (2 X 3 X 8)
possible combinations. So, you now have a Wizard with 3 pages. Now think of
all the possible ways you could subdivide people into groups, and how many
possible combinations of requirements that would entail, and if your head
isn't spinning by now, you have a weak imagination!
In other words, if you plan to wait around "for the real next generation
tool that would 'automate' a lot of the ASP stuff that you are always seeing
'how do you do --' posts about in this newsgroup," don't hold your breath.
But reading through all that, I can't tell if I'm going to need
Expression or both Expression and Sharepoint Designer. And what is
with that statement "Teams of designers using Expression Web Designer
and developers using Microsoft Visual Studio will benefit from
numerous integrated features that allow them to collaborate on the
design and development of content and applications". Visual Studio is
a player in this too??
If you don't know what you would use SharePoint Designer for, you won't be
needing it any time soon. A SharePoint web site is a specialized type of
collaborative portal site that requires a special server setup, SQL Server,
etc, and is actually a web application.
As for how Visual Studio.Net fits into this: First, as I mentioned, a
SharePoint web site is an application. Visual Studio.Net is an application
development environment. You can build custom WebParts and other ASP.Net
components and tools with Visual Studio.Net. This is different from
changing, for example, the content of the SharePoint web, or the style of
it, or managing its permissions. This would be done using SharePoint
Designer. Second, Visual Studio.Net is an environment for creating all kinds
of .Net applications, including ASP.Net. But it is not an HTML editor, or
web site management tool. Many ASP.Net developers use FrontPage to create
the HTML templates in their ASP.Net applications, and Visual Studio to write
the programming code.
All I want is a replacement for Frontpage that will make Dreamweaver
look old fashioned -- and I dont have any teams of developers in the
back room using Visual Studio, it's just me, man. I'm ready to buy a
(single) new tool that takes me to the next level.
You'll be looking at Expression Web Designer in that case. As for whether or
not it will make Dreamweaver look old fashioned, well, that's a horse race
there. We'll just have to wait and see.
--
HTH,
Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
..Net Developer
We got a sick zebra a hat,
you ultimate tuna.
