.NET Fireside Chats - Holger Schwichtenberg

DZone recently had an opportunity to sit down with Dr. Holger Schwichtenberg, author of DZone's newest Refcard - Core ASP.NET. In this interview, he discusses the Refcard and his experience working with ASP.NET.

Don't forget to download DZone's NEW Refcard on Core ASP.NET, written by Dr. Holger Schwichtenberg.

DZone - Tell us a little about your experience with ASP.NET.

Holger Schwichtenberg - I have been a very early adopter of the classic Active Sever Page (ASP). In that age writing web shops was the main business of my company IT-Visions.de. We also switched to ASP.NET very early during the beta phase in 2001. Nowadays we mainly write Intranet business applications in ASP.NET that were formerly running as desktop application.

DZone - What was your motivation for writing the ASP.NET Refcard?

Holger - I have been writing the ASP.NET Developer Handbook for Microsoft Press in Germany since Version 1.0. I met Nitin Bharti at the PDC in Los Angeles last year and loved the Refcardz he presented to me. My philosophy is that a wise man is not somebody who knows everything but one who  knows where he can find the information he needs. So I love cheat sheets like the Refcardz.

DZone - What are your thoughts on the new ASP.NET MVC framework?

Holger - To be honest: In my opinion, the ASP.NET MVC is only great for people with a big budget. For most customers I know it is important to get a great web application for a decent amount of money. The ASP.NET MVC today is not as productive as ASP.NET Webforms, as the rendering is more or less like the classic ASP.

DZone - How should developers choose between WebForms and MVC when planning a new ASP.NET application?

Holger - Use MVC if you want a cleaner structure, better testability and full control over your HTML output. Use Webforms if you want productivity.

DZone - What are some of the major new features available in ASP.NET 3.5?

Holger - ASP.NET 3.5 had only very little improvements compared to ASP.NET 2.0. However, ASP.NET 3.5 Service Pack 1 had remarkable improvements, especially Dynamic Data Websites, ADO.NET Data Services and history for AJAX pages.

DZone - Are there any major improvements coming in ASP.NET 4.0?

Holger - I am looking forward to the client side data binding and client side controls. This will be a great improvement of productivity when developing with the AJAX service model (aka "Script Services")

DZone - What is at the top of your wish list for ASP.NET?

Holger - Making client side development with JavaScript as simple as server side development with .NET. The C# to JavaScript converter in the Volta project would be a great step towards this. However, it is uncertain if and when Volta will be a product.

DZone - Was it difficult summarizing the key points of ASP.NET in just a few pages?

Holger - Yes, it actually was. ASP.NET is the most comprehensive library in .NET framework. My ASP.NET developer handbooks have more than 1300 pages. Thus, the ASP.NET Core Refcard can only cover a very small portion of the overall functionality. I am looking forward to write advanced ASP.NET Refcardz!

DZone - Who should download this Refcard?

Holger - This Refcard is for beginners with ASP.NET. It contains a mixture of conceptual information and references that an ASP.NET developer can use every day. However, you should bring previous knowledge in web development (e.g. PHP, JSP) and the basics of the .NET Framework and C#.

DZone - Do you have any new writing projects on the horizon?

Holger - In 2009 I am planning to update my English book "Essential PowerShell" as well as my German books on .NET and ASP.NET.