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Good Things

By EldenNelson

Martha Stewart's in hot water right now, so I'm willing tobet she's not currently thinking about her trademark "Good Things." And that'sa big problem. The world desperately needs someone to identify Good Things inthe world. In the short term, I'll be happy to take on that role. Here are afew.

WebMatrix: It's our cover story for the August issue, and with goodreason. This editor's a small download (which is good), it's designedespecially for ASP.NET developers (which is good), and it's free (which isreally, really good). Beyond that, though, is what it means to developers whohave already identified ASP.NET as your Web development technology ofchoice: Your platform is suddenly open to a much larger audience. This meansmore discussion of the technology, more free code shared around on the Net,more tools, more Web Services you can use, and a much larger community oflike-minded developers. If you're undecided on whether ASP.NET is what you wantto use, Web Matrix represents a no-cost way to investigate. And if you'realready one of the converted, Web Matrix is a Good Thing because now you caneasily share the love.

Now, I'm not saying Web Matrix is an ideal solution - VS.NET has some important features Web Matrix doesn't (IntelliSense and advanceddebugging features foremost among these), but it sure beats Notepad. Check outScott Mitchell's excellent overview and walkthrough of this product.

New Columns: As the ASP.NET developer communitygrows and evolves, we at asp.netPRO are doing our best to keep pace.We're proud to announce Dan Wahlin, XML and Web Services Guru, is joining us asthe author of our new XtremeDatacolumn. XML and Web Services are going to play a crucial part in every ASP.NETdeveloper's programming efforts, and Dan's just the guy to show you newtechniques grounded in real-world development experience. This is a Good Thing.

Although ASP.NET is gaining momentum, we don't want tolose sight of the fact that it is a brand-new technology, and many - maybe most- developers are new to it and could use a hand at learning the ropes. Withthat in mind, we're adding a beginner's column to our editorial mix: StartingLine.In the first installment, Wayne Freeze walks you through building your firstASP.NET page. If you're new to ASP.NET development - or maybe you know somebodywho's just downloaded Web Matrix and is wondering what to do next - this is agreat place to start.

Of course, some of you are wanting to stretch yourselvesand start doing some mind-expanding development. We've asked Dino Esposito totake on this task as author of the new CoreCodercolumn. This is not a column to breeze through. Do not plan on being able toskim through the code. Dino's going to challenge you; he's going to make you workfor what you learn. CoreCoder is meant to be hard, but it'll be worth it.Which, in my opinion, is a Good - albeit tough - thing.

asp.netPRO NOW Newsletter: Every month, the asp.netPROeditorial staff grapples with a problem: We've got more to say than we havespace to say it. Therefore, we're launching asp.netPRO NOW, a freecompanion newsletter to asp.netPRO. Here, you'll find bonus informationthat complements articles in the magazine. For example, this month you can reada great interview with the development team responsible for the creation of WebMatrix, detailing whose idea it was, why they created it, whom they created itfor, what its limitations are, and more. You'll also find extra resources onencryption and a useful comparison of encryption algorithms (SHA1, MD5, 3DES)to go along with Beth Breidenbach's 9Steps to Secure Forms Authentication. And asp.netPRO NOW packs indownloadable code, tips, techniques, opinions, Q&A sessions, and more.Whether you get asp.netPRO or not, you'll want to subscribe to asp.netPRONOW right away; go to http://www.aspnetpro.com/ealerts/default.aspto sign up.

Of course, my saying these are all Good Thingsdoesn't necessarily make them so. I want to know exactly how helpful you findthis magazine. Is it exactly what you want? Is there something you wish it had?Do you like the e-newsletter? Do you have a tip or question? Tell me what's onyour mind. You can reach me at mailto:elden@aspnetPRO.com.Your ideas and feedback are what make asp.netPRO what it is.

And that's a Good Thing.

Elden Nelson is editor-in-chief of asp.netPROmagazine. E-mail him at mailto: elden@aspnetPRO.com.