hi

In a few days i must begin the development of a web application. Since it appear to be simple i'd like to use this job to upgrade my knowledge to the latest .net technologies. At the moment i'm stuck at 2.0 version. I've touched , but not deeply used , the enterprise libraries. Since the tools,frameworks and architectures  patterns have really increased in number , i feel a bit lost and i'd like hints about available technologies(entity framework, linq to sql, linq to entities ...), their advantages , disavantages , most appropriate architecture to apply when developing with a tool or another.  Which books wuold you suggest? Are the following worth good books?

Programming Microsoft® ASP.NET 3.5
by Dino Esposito

Programming Microsoft LINQ
by Paolo Pialorsi and Marco Russo

i know this question is rather generic, but i need to choose the right learning path
thank you in advance

The first thing to learn is that when you "move up" to version 3.5, you're still "stuck at 2.0".  Versions 3.0 and 3.5 of .NET are actually layers that sit on top of .NET 2.0.  If you look at the Toolbox in Visual Studio, notice that many of the controls still have a version number of 2.0.  This is because only the newer controls and features have been able to the supplemental libraries associated with .NET 3.0 and 3.5.  In other words, many of the controls are no different.  Furthermore, since the base version is still 2.0, if you're using Visual Studio 2008 (including the Express editions), you can develop in 2.0, 3.0, or 3.5.  Thus, any application that you have in VS 2005 can also be maintained in VS 2008.

As for what to learn, given the above books, I would say that these are good books to have.  Note that LINQ is a new technology that was not in version 2.0, so if you foresee the use of it in your future development, then definitely focus on it.

Remember that VS 2010 and .NET 4.0 is just around the corner.....

 Hello,

If you are interested in web technology, i recommend you to take a look at asp.MVC. THere is also a very good example application ("Nerddinner") with pdf, available.
http://www.asp.net/mvc/

They also use other technology like linqToSql in the example.

Best regards,

Bernhard Kircher