Beginning ASP.NET 3.5: In C# and VB

5.1. Introduction to Programming

To get started with programming, it's critical to understand a common set of terminology shared by programmers in all types of languages and applications. The remainder of this chapter introduces you to a relatively large number of terms and concepts. Most of the terminology comes with code examples so you can see how they are used in real code.

It's also important to realize this is not a complete introduction to programming. Not every detail of a programming language is covered. Instead, this chapter focuses on the key concepts that you need to understand to successfully build day to day web sites. Once you get the hang of that you'll find it's easier to deepen your knowledge about programming by learning the more exotic features of your favorite programming language.

If you're interested in learning a lot more about programming VB.NET or C#, find Beginning Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 or Beginning Microsoft Visual C# 2008, both published by Wrox.

The code you are going to write in this and coming chapters is either added to the Code Behind of a web page, or in a separate class file placed in the App_Code folder, which is discussed later in the chapter. When the ASP.NET runtime processes the request for a page containing code, it compiles any code it finds in the page, Code Behind, or class file first. When code is compiled, it is being transformed from a human readable programming language (like C# or VB.NET) into something that the computer ...