This is a shoutout as I've been spending the last few days learning about .NET and the process has left me a little confused rather than enlightened. Just as a background info, I have knowledge of PHP (have even used CakePHP to create a whole app rather easily) and Rails.
I am wondering if I should pursue ASP.NET or should stick to learning ASP.NET MVC? While I was going through a few tutorials of ASP.NET, the basics seemed rather straightforward, but somehow, when every example I've gone through sticks SQL statements right into the example without a DAL, I just get a little worried.
So, in case I was just not doing any good research, are there any books/sites out there that will help in this? Or should I just go and learn .NET MVC?
If you're wondering why I just don't stick with PHP or Rails, I just learned that I might just have to know a little .NET for the safety of my job.
ASP .net MVC will be closer to your rails experience.
ASP .net Web Forms (what is usually called ASP.net) is clearly different, but if you are learning for the sake of finding jobs, it's what will pay for a long time(there are lots and lots of sites, both internal and public-facing) built on ASP .net web forms. There are some emerging sites using ASP.net MVC, but it's a long way.
So, it depends on your goals. If you just need to know "a little .net", go with MVC because the concepts will be known to you. If you need to know "the .net web stack", then most people will thnik of web forms, not MVC...
And yes, samples in the microsoft world tend to be on the "lighter side". It's near impossible to find demos that do not have the "draggy-droppy" feeling, and it is a REAL problem.