I created a new asp.net project, and I am using the monodevelop as the ide. On the left hand side in the explorer I can see two sections, one is called reference and the other called packages. I assume that references are the library or dependency files like the jar equivalent of java. Then what are the packages section for? Is it also another kind of dependency? Can anybody help me understand the meaning of those two sections?
I assume you mean References and Packages. There is no Resources section/folder when I create an ASP.NET project in MonoDevelop.
The References folder will show the assemblies that are being referenced by your project. An assembly is equivalent to a jar file.
The Packages folder shows you the NuGet packages that are being used by your project. A NuGet package will typically provide assemblies and these will be shown inside the References folder but within a From Packages folder. A NuGet package may include other things, such as content files, which are added to the project, or custom MSBuild targets which modify the build behaviour.