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What a long, strange trip it's been: the biggest ASP.NET moments for 2003

Borrowing a timeless theme from the late, great Jerry Garcia, here’s my list of memorable moments for being a proud ASP.NET developer over the past 12 months.  Feel free to append your own, as I’m sure I’ve left something out.

 

  • Updated version of ASP.NET Web Matrix released
  • New edition of Steve Walther’s seminal work “ASP.NET Unleashed” published, featuring ASP.NET 1.1 examples in C# and VB.NET
  • MMIT included as part of VS.NET 2003, eliminating need for separate download
  • Dave Wanta’s aspNetEmail component slays competition for sending mail
  • Someone figures out how to share session data between ASP 3.0 and ASP.NET 1.x
  • ASP.NET Forums take off...and take over
  • Data provider for Oracle released
  • C# gains leverage over VB.NET (ouch - you may throw tomatoes....NOW!!!)
  • The eternal “should I use a DataReader or DataSet?” argument, after much debate, is put to rest in numerous community forums
  • Whatever happened to ASPElite?
  • I foolishly fall victim to the soon-to-be bought out IDG Books (aka, Hungry Minds), now Wiley Publications, serving as technical reviewer and getting screwed out of a payment
  • Starter Kits made public
  • ASPAdvice inherits mailing list community from now-defunct ASPFriends
  • The .NET Show promises - and then cancels – episode on developing custom server controls 
  • Microsoft Application Blocks released to rave reviews
  • I get selected as a Whidbey alpha tester.  I have seen the future, and it is very, very, very good.
  • Freeware Cassini web server debuts (I think this happened in 2003)
  • ASPToday.com becomes part of fallout as Wrox goes under; properties later acquired by APress
  • Microsoft makes big push towards RSS in several of its public web properties
  • Community top dogs make move towards blogs, thanks to Scott Watermasysk’s .TEXT
  • Bravo to the cat who made DataGrids scrollable by setting <div style=”overflow:auto;”><asp:DataGrid id=”dg” runat=”server”></div> 
  • MSDN-TV debuts with Rob Howard talking about AppSettings
  • I secure two subscriptions to ASP.NET Pro Magazine – one for the office to get wrecked, one for archival at home
  • Addison-Wesley rolls out outstanding “.NET Developer Series”- advanced books without fluff or marketingspeak
  • ASP.NET WebCast Week on MSDN announced – <and the crowd goes wild!>
  • 2.0 - Whidbey blows ‘em all away after premiering at PDC
Posted: Dec 25 2003, 05:37 PM by guam-aspdev | with 9 comment(s)
Filed under:

Comments

Robert McLaws said:

PS: Love your tag line dude. Talk about a jack of all trades! Do you develop while you're on the air?

Anchor #1: And in other news, shots rang out....
<loud screaming off camera>
<camera pans to Jason typing into the inset monitor in the newsdesk>
Jason: Sorry.... I just figured out how to post to my blog from Microsoft Word.
# December 25, 2003 4:48 AM

Robert McLaws said:

You may not want to go into the whole (ASPElite) thing.... as the name intails it was doomed from the start. Just what developers need is to appear to be MORE elitist then they already are.
# December 25, 2003 4:49 AM

Steve said:

So..... DataReader... or... DataSet?!?!??
# December 25, 2003 9:43 AM

Scott said:

re: ASPElite
Not to mention that it doesn't include ALL of the really elite. I know some guys that could program rings around most of the bloggers I read that would never join any kind of user group. :)

# December 25, 2003 3:07 PM

Jason Salas said:

Hi Robert,

Tell me about it...I've literally had to run at lighjspeed back to my office's workstation and make 7-second fixes to a database thing in the middle of commercials. :)

Or, even worse....make a mad dash back to the PC to put something online that I just teased to 80,000 people as, "if you'd like to see the budget bill in its entirety, visit our website RIGHT NOW at www.kuam.com". It's many hats to wear at once, but incredibly challenging and super-fun.
# December 25, 2003 5:16 PM

Jason Salas said:

Hi Steve,

Essentially, what I've seen is people debate the merits of each, and find out which one is more suitable for their needs. It was mainly a "forward-only vs. disconnected" argument. At least now people know.
# December 25, 2003 5:18 PM

TrackBack said:

# December 29, 2003 7:21 AM

Scott said:

My criteria for deciding to use a DataReader vs. a DataSet usually has nothing to do with the "Forward-only vs. disconnect" It's usually a case of "size of the Result Set vs. What I'm going to do with the Result set(functionality"

# December 30, 2003 4:35 PM

mike said:

And what do "we" think about this topic in the docs?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vbcon/html/vbcondecidingondataaccessstrategy.asp
# December 31, 2003 4:07 AM
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