Finally... A Replacement for Classic ASP

Recently I noticed that on the ASP.NET website there was a new menu option. In addition to "Web Forms" and "MVC", there is now "Web Pages". This leads to information on ASP.NET Web Pages and the new Razor syntax.

After a brief look through the documentation it appears to me that this is he closest we have to a replacement for Classic ASP!

Although it goes against some of the coding best practices established by ASP.NET, such as separating content from code, to me it seems like an excellent way to get back to coding like I used to with Classic ASP -- simple, efficient code with the programmer in control instead of Web Forms.

I have read some opinions on "Web Pages" and I disagree with those who claim that this new development option will only appeal to those looking for a simple way of producing dynamic websites. It appeals to me as I like to have more control over the HTML sent to the client browser and minimise the amount of server traffic (no viewstate data), and am sick of creating repeaters with OnItemDataBound events to do things that were so much simpler in Classic ASP. Surely the simple option is "Web Forms" with drag and drop controls and code-less development.

Microsoft has made available a free tool called WebMatrix as a simple tool for creating web sites, but Visual Web Developer or Visual Studio 2010 is the better choice for professionals. You will need to download the MVC 3 Tools from Microsoft.

I plan to produce some test code and see how well it works out. I see it combining well with JQuery for doing AJAX.

The official website is at http://www.asp.net/web-pages.

There is an excellent 270+ page PDF book available from Microsoft at ASPNETWebPagesWithRazorSyntax-Book.pdf (free download).