Summary

This chapter's goals were as follows :

• To cover the essentials of .NET programming

• To explore the various ways of accessing data using .NET

• To review the use of .NET to interface with the user

• To introduce advanced .NET technologies

• To understand the roles of marketing and planning for .NET

So, what is .NET? Throughout this chapter, I have provided several answers to this question. I am certain that now you can appreciate the various ways that this question can be answered . Try it. Ask several people the question. Depending on whom you ask, you will get different answers. The great thing is that each answer is likely to be correct. .NET really is a lot of things, including this one thing: Practically the future of Microsoft Windows and Web (also portable/mobile) targeted development depends on it.

The Microsoft executives have gone on record as stating that Microsoft's .NET commitment amounts to a " betting of the farm" for Microsoft. In other words, .NET is not just the next big thing, it is the next big thing ( especially for Microsoft, and thus for a developer community several hundred thousand strong).

In the next chapter, you will look at your retraining effort from a slightly different angle. You will explore (and remove) some of the common training obstacles that recently reformed mainframe programmers are likely to come across. My intention is to make sure that you have the proper foundation before you remove the brakes and dive even deeper into .NET.