* ASP.NET

	ASP.NET support is divided in two pieces:
	<ul>
		* Web Forms (Web Applications infrastructure).

		* Web Services (the SOAP-based rpc system).
	</ul>

	There is work underway for both systems.  The Web Forms
	support is more advanced at this point, and various ".aspx"
	programs can be run using the Mono runtime and the XSP page
	parser.

	We are now working bug fixing and adding missing features
	after making the whole pipeline compatible with MS.

	Tim started work on the Web Services.  Although we have a
	SoapFormatter as part of the remoting infrastructure already
	(contributed by Jesus), most people will be using the ASP.NET
	Web Services support.  Work for the supporting class libraries
	just started recently.

* Web Forms: The pieces

	There are a couple of components to the puzzle:

	<ul>
		* .aspx page parser (converts .aspx to C# code).
	
		* System.Web.HttpRuntime support.
	
		* Web controls (System.Web.UI.HtmlControls and
		  System.Web.UI.WebControls).
	
		* Underlying infrastructure for the controls (System.Web.UI).
	
		* HttpRuntime.ProcessRequest is the core of the ASP.NET
		  implementation.
	</ul>


	Gonzalo has been working on an ASP.NET parser that takes .aspx
	files and generated the code required to run them (the code lives in
	module `xsp' along with a little web server for testing).

	Most of the runtime support was written by Patrik Torstensson
	(now at Intel).  This was interesting, because in order to implement
	some of its features, Patrik had to go into the runtime/JIT engine and
	he spent a few weeks doing work there.

	The classes for running ASP.NET are being actively written.
	Gaurav, Leen and Patrik worked in the core of the classes
	required to run ASP.NET web application as well as a small
	embeddable web server.

	Duncan got our System.Web assembly to compile.

** HttpRuntime

	Patrik has authored most of the HttpRuntime support (both on
	the System.Web and on the foundation).

	We are currently working on this.

** XSP

	This is where initial development of the .aspx/.ascx/.asax compiler 
	to C# took place. That compiler is now integrated in System.Web classes
	mostly under System.Web.Compilation namespace.

	We added a new web server that works with mono and MS runtime and is
	being used to debug our classes.  It resides in xsp/server. A couple of
	classes of this new server can be reused/extended to make an apache
	module/cgi using mono (MonoWorkerRequest and MonoApplicationHost).

	There is also a bunch of .aspx pages to test the server along with
	a few user controls under xsp/test.

	You can check it out from CVS and run 'make install' to test it.

** Controls

	A lot of work has been put in the various classes that
	implement the controls (UI.HtmlControls and UI.WebControls),
	but they have been coded mostly in the dark, and without being
	able to test them in real life: Gaurav and Leen worked very
	hard on this namespace.

	We can now render all HtmlControls and almost all WebControls.
	DataGrid and DataList controls are being finished by Gaurav.
	Xml control needs some work on System.Xml related to XSL.

** Extending ASP.NET

	Currently you have to reference in your ASP.NET the control
	and all of its properties, which works fine if you have a GUI
	designer, but is harder for people used to develop using text
	editors.

	Since we have a parser, we could extend this parser to allow
	people to still use ASP.NET controls, using a simpler syntax.
	For example people doing blogs and editing their templates
	over the web probably do not want to use direct ASP.NET but a
	wrapper around it.

** Roadmap

        1. The Parser.

        2. Get the parser to generate output compatible with ASP.NET.

        3. Run the sample output with the real Microsoft runtime
           but using our generated page.   

        4. Run the sample with our classes with the .NET runtime.

        5. Run the samples with our classes with the our runtime (without
	using HttpRuntime).

        6. Finish HttpRuntime.
	
        7. Running our sample code with our classes with our runtime.

	8. Debug and add missing features.

	We are in step 8. Among the missing features: server side includes,
	better caching, some configuration stuff, more validators...
	
** How to Help

        Testing and fixing HtmlControls, WebControls and validators is an
	easy way to help.

        In the CVS module XSP you can find a small web server used for
	testing and a directory containing sample aspx pages.

        You have some documentation under doc directory and in the README
        file of each directory. They explain how to test our System.Web.
        Testing is really easy!

	As the server also works with MS runtime, you can use it to check
	what the expected results are.