ASP.NET 2.0 Features Cut

Several features planned for ASP.NET 2.0 and included in the initial beta will be removed from future betas and the final product, forcing some developers who have been using the betas to revise their code. Unlike the recent changes to the next version of Windows (code-named Longhorn), in which a major pillar of the product was postponed indefinitely, the changes to ASP.NET are relatively minor and do not reflect any drastic changes in product design. Rather, they are the normal result of the product team trying to minimize the risk that the product might not ship on time, as it works its way through the beta cycle.

The most significant changes include the following:

Mobile adapters. The initial ASP.NET 2.0 plans called for all of its built-in controls to adapt automatically to the type of device being used to access a Web page, adjusting their output for the smaller screen size of a Pocket PC or Smartphone, for example. These capabilities are being removed and developers building applications for mobile devices will need to use a separate set of mobile controls, as they did in ASP.NET 1.0.