[BobLewiston]

I've been out of the industry too long and I'm confused. I thought C# was one of a number of languages built on the "Microsoft .NET Framework" managed code programming model. Yet people use the term ".NET" as if it was the name of a language.

Also: technically, isn't ANYTHING that's not system programming considered to be applications programming? Because it seems that nowadays people reserve the term "applications programming" for applications that don't run on the net (either server- or client-side)(although they do sometimes speak of web apps).

The reason I ask is that web- and non-web-programming seem to be such different environments, and I need this information to help me decide in what field to try to break back into programming.

Can anybody straighten me out? Thanks for whatever help you can give me.

[jaeusm]

I thought C# was one of a number of languages built on the "Microsoft .NET Framework" managed code programming model.

The .NET framework is a large collection of libraries and a runtime environment, not a programming model. C# is the flagship language for which to develop managed applications using the .NET framework.

technically, isn't ANYTHING that's not system programming considered to be applications programming?

Technically, yes. However, it's common for people to use that phrase to mean "desktop applications programming".

The reason I ask is that web- and non-web-programming seem to be such different environments, and I need this information to help me decide in what field to try to break back into programming.

For what it's worth, there are far more jobs available for developing web apps than for desktop apps -- especially if you're interested in .NET, as your other posts suggest. In that case, focus on the C# language, ASP.NET, and SQL. Just take a look at C# jobs on Dice or Monster for your area to get a feel for the specific technologies to focus on.

[BobLewiston]

I know that Windows has a big share of the webserver market, and C# and other .NET languages are web-aware and run under Windows, but I thought that for some reason not a whole lot of webserver applications are written in C#, and virtually no client-side apps are. Was I wrong about that?

Also, are there any compatibility issues between SQL and any other languages? (Perhaps an antiquated question at this point.)

I'm going out on a limb on the next question, so please excuse the possible stupidity:

I take it asp.net is a language for client-side web development, which can be used with Visual Web Developer, which is a kind of IDE for client-side web development?

[Mak213]

Windows doesnt have as much of a Web Server share as you might think. More and more servers are using Linux Distros.

That being said i think you are getting confused cause C# is used mainly for desktop applications. Not for WEb stuff. That is HTML, Java, PHP, Pearl, XHTML, Ajax and so on. C# and .NET are used for stuff that you use within Windows on your desktop. Not so much what you use on the web unless you are developing for use with Silverlight.

Dont take my word for it as i have not been in development at all. But from my understanding this is what i know.

[jaeusm]

I take it asp.net is a language for client-side web development, which can be used with Visual Web Developer, which is a kind of IDE for client-side web development?

No. ASP.NET is a platform for developing web-apps, not a language. For instance, you can write an ASP.NET web app using C#. You can use C# for client side and server side coding.

That being said i think you are getting confused cause C# is used mainly for desktop applications. Not for WEb stuff. That is HTML, Java, PHP, Pearl, XHTML, Ajax and so on. C# and .NET are used for stuff that you use within Windows on your desktop. Not so much what you use on the web unless you are developing for use with Silverlight.

Actually, C# is used mainly for writing ASP.NET web apps. It is also used in developing desktop apps, but most C# jobs involve ASP.NET and database access.

I'm currently employed as a senior C# developer writing WPF desktop apps for a distributed system, so I can't give you the fine details regarding ASP.NET. I can tell you, however, that writing web apps + database queries is very tedious and boring. On the flip side, those skills are in higher demand than Winforms or WPF.