OWIN and the Web

.NET is Microsoft Specific which is also featuring in some Open source projects. Believe me it is true, read here:

https://opensource.com/business/14/11/microsoft-dot-net-empower-open-source-communities

'Microsoft is providing the full .NET server stack in open source, including ASP.NET, the compiler, the .NET Core Runtime, Framework and libraries, enbaling devvelopers to build with .NET across Windows, Mac or Linux'.

This is old story, since 2004 the 'mono project' was a open source implementation of .NET platform.

Now coming to OWIN, which is short for Open Web Interface for .NET OWIN) defines a standard interface between .NET web servers and web applications.

You can find everything you want to know about OWIN here at this master site.

http://owin.org/

These are some of OWIN compatible projects:

Servers and Hosts

    Katana

    Nowin

    Suave

Frameworks

    Jasper

    Nancy

    SignalR

    WebApi

    WebSharper

    DuoVia.Http

    Simplify.Web

    Wisej

Implementations

    Katana

    Freya

    ASP.NET vNext

Microsoft uses OWIN for building ASP.NET Single-Page applications and several of the assemblies used are OWIN based as shown here:

MicrosoftOwinAssmeblies.png

Trick to bring up Object Browser in Visual Studio Express 2013 for web

Object browser is a great menu item in Visual Studio if you are trying to dig into the details of a program. Unfortunately it is missing (I don't think only in my installation) in Visual Studio Express 2013 for web. Object Browser is also absent in the Other Windows submenu item.

In order to make it show up, you can click on an object like a button, or a text-box and from the drop-down menu click on Go to defintion shown.

This will bring up the object browser as shown.