Question Am I installing something I already have?

[kristynedwards]

I'm a college student going for a degree in Computer Information Systems. I know absolutely nothing about it except that I enjoy anything to do with a computer but as far as the programs used, etc., I'm still clueless at this point. I've only had one course (C++ programming with Visual Basic 2008) so far to do with my degree so I'm very new still. In my spare time, I'm looking to gain any experience I can to do with my major and anything that can help me in the long run land a job. I've been checking out job offers on Monster.com, etc. to see what employers are looking for and I've noticed several asking for a high level experience using Microsoft.Net and, I believe, ASP.Net. Now, I don't know what either of those programs are, but I searched around a bit and found advice saying to download the express version of Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and to dig in... Find tutorials, videos, maybe a book or two, etc. My question is, I already have Visual Basic 2008 express edition (Visual C++ 9.0) from my previous course. Is the program I'm being referred to download not the same one I already have, just a newer version? I apologize for what may seem to be a really stupid question to anyone with experience, but I'm just trying to figure it all out.

Thanks in advance, Kristy

 

[JohnH]

I'm still clueless at this point. I've only had one course (C++ programming with Visual Basic 2008)

Point taken VB and C++ are two different languages... If you have VB Express and want to do ASP.Net you need to install Visual Web Developer Express as well, this is the dedicated Express web development IDE. From this link Microsoft Express Home you'll find it in Web section.

 

[kristynedwards]

"VB and C++ are two different languages," yeah, that... The way it's titled is very deceiving, I guess. Do you know if Microsoft.Net is the same as VB.Net? I'm really confused. Maybe I'm too in over my head and should take a step back.

 

[jmcilhinney]

.NET is a platform. It's not one specific piece of software. The basis of the .NET platform is the .NET Framework, which includes a vast class library and much, much more. VB.NET is the umbrella term used for all versions of the Visual Basic language after version 6, which have all targeted the .NET Framework, as well as the tools used to develop in VB.

VB.NET was the official name for VB7, which was the first version of VB that targeted the .NET Framework. The original VB.NET became known as VB.NET 2002 once VB7.1 was released, which was officially named VB.NET 2003. Microsoft also released Visual Studio .NET and Visual Studio .NET 2003, which were the development environments for VB.NET, C#, web development and others.

When the 2005 round of products was released, Microsoft dropped the .NET suffix. The implication was that .NET was now the default for Microsoft development and everything else needed to be distinguished form that rather than the other way around. As such, VB8 was officially named VB 2005 and the new IDE was VS 2005.

2005 also saw the first release of the Express editions of VS. Visual Studio is an environment that can, and does, host many individual applications. Those applications include the Visual Basic (the IDE for working in the VB language), Visual C#, Visual Web Developer (for building ASP.NET web applications) and more. Microsoft decided to release these core components of VS as standalone apps and give them away for free. As such, VB Express, Visual C# Express, Visual Web Developer Express, etc, were born.

VB Express is an integrated development environment (IDE) for building Windows applications using the VB language. It has a subset of the features of Visual Studio and places no restrictions on what you can do with the applications you build with it. Visual Web Developer Express is similar. It is designed for building ASP.NET web applications using VB or C# as the code-behind language. ASP.NET is the .NET-based technology for web applications. You build your web interface using HTML and ASP.NET server controls. When the web server processes your pages, it passes them off to ASP.NET, which processes your ASPX page and turns the code for your server controls into standard HTML suitable for display in a browser.

 

[cjard]

You may find it helpful, initially, to read some tutorials and documents about Object Oriented programming in general; the basic concepts, why we represent things in the computer's memory using the notion of an "object" etc - I'd start with the wikipedia article Object-oriented programming - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - this should help sort out some of the confusing array of terms you will see on forums, such as "class, instance, method, constructor etc)