Writing .Net application without Visual Studio

Even though it is much easier to write .Net application using Visual Studio but it is still possible to write applications using just a notepad. If you have Windows XP, Framework 1.1 comes pre-installed. There is currently two main Frameworks available 1.1 and 2.0. Framework 3.0 and Framework 3.5 are just Framework 2.0 with additional add-ons.

If you have Framework 1.1 installed, the folder will look like this:
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322

While if you have Framework 2.0 with 3.x installed, you will see
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0 and then see folder below it.

To compile a program, you need you just need to specify the proper compiler to compile it. Suppose you wrote a program called it HelloWorld.vb, you compile it using the the following command (then it will generate the application HelloWorld.exe):

C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\vbc HelloWorld.vb

If your program refers to other libraries then you add /r: followed by the list of assemblies it refers to. For example, /r:System.data.dll,System.Web.xml.

For Asp.net applications, you will need to compile it .dll files, so add /t:library. You can also use /o:HelloNewWorld.exe to change the output filename. To compile csc intead of vbc to compile CSharp programs.