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Unit 1: The .Net Framework

And this is should be my third paragraph in HTML. Notes
The <BR> tag is only required when you want to control where the line breaks. It is not required
after other tags which imply a line break, such as the horizontal rule tag.

The HR Tag

The <HR> tag draws a horizontal line across the page, like the line above this paragraph. It also
acts as a paragraph break. There is no need to use the <BR> before or after the <HR> tag. For
example, the following HTML source code:

A paragraph of text. <HR> Another paragraph of text.
Would display this on the user's screen:
A paragraph of text.
Another paragraph of text.

1.2 Server-side Programming

Though it is technically feasible to implement almost any business logic using client-side
programs, logically or functionally it carries no ground when it comes to enterprise applications
(e.g. banking, air ticketing, e-shopping etc.). To further explain, going by the client-side
programming logic; a bank having 10,000 customers would mean that each customer should
have a copy of the program(s) in his or her PC which translates to 10,000 programs! In addition,
there are issues like security, resource pooling, concurrent access and manipulations to the
database which simply cannot be handled by client-side programs. The answer to most of the
issues cited above is – “Server-side Programming”. Figure 1.3 illustrates Server-side architecture
in the simplest terms.
To understand why ASP.NET was created, it helps to understand the problems of early web
development technologies. With the original CGI standard, for example, the web server must
launch a completely separate instance of the application for each web request. If the website is
popular, the web server struggles under the weight of hundreds of separate copies of the
application, eventually becoming a victim of its own success. Furthermore, technologies such as
CGI provide a bare-bones programming environment. If you want higher-level features, like
the ability to authenticate users, store personalized information, or display records you’ve
retrieved from a database, you need to write pages of code from scratch. Building a web
application this way is tedious and error-prone.
Figure 1.3: Server-side Architecture

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