ASP.NET Development WITHOUT Visual Studio.

Question

Hi All,

I have a website that I hand coded myself, and now I want to use ASP.NET, so a few weeks ago I opened my html files inside Web Developer, and to my surprise as I made changes to the files in the Designer, everything just went out of whack. Things weren't where they were supposed to be etc. So, are there any sites online (I'd prefer official sites, like MSDN) that DON'T force Visual Studio down my throat?

From all the tutorials and Articles I've read on MSDN I'm finding it VERY difficult to learn ASP.NET because they're all based around Web Developer (Vis. Studio).

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Answer 1

I'm confused, if you don't use Visual Studio you're going to have to generate those designer files yourself and then feed it all through a .NET compiler manually.

You can't cure a sore toe by cutting off the foot.

If however you mean ASP.NET controls are influencing your pre-coded HTML templates, this isn't the right way to build ASP.NET (where it is intended that you build your page up from controls and decorate them with HTML) and you would be much better suited by ASP.NET MVC (where you generate a HTML page much like PHP).

Answer 2

Whilst most of the tutorials will assume Visual Studio, it is not a requirement. Almost all tutorials talk about the code, not the IDE.

For instance the Nerd Dinner tutorial book, whilst it is based around the assumption that you're using VS.NET, you don't need to.

http://nerddinnerbook.s3.amazonaws.com/Part4.htm

Talks about adding controllers, but then shows you the entire code for the controller that you could have written in Notepad if you'd have preferred.

However if you are interested in doing this commercially, I would suggest getting used to Visual Studio as it would be an expected skill to have in any professional ASP.NET house. Also it is a massive productivity booster.

The only issue I've had with VS is the way it formats my code, however most of this can be specified in preferences (such as where opening and closing braces go, where closing tags go, how tags can be auto-closed etc).

Answer 3

You can use similar free and lightweight IDE , ICSharp . http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/Default.aspx