There are many great advantages of the new .NET technology.  One that can’t be minimized is its powerful flexibility tempered by a refreshingly innate simplicity.

Briefly, ASP.NET is compiled as needed when the pages are accessed (see this article for a more technical description).  This may happen in two different ways:

• If you are working in a ‘debug’ mode, pages are compiled (or have their code built) into individual files, with a lot of other debug and source related information also generated – something that can have a big performance impact on the application.
• If you are working in ‘release’ mode (ie, debug=false), all the pages in a directory are compiled in together, and this is done in a lean way that excludes all the superfluous information that is not required for the page to run.

HelpMaster Pro is compiled and shipped in release mode without the debugging information included – for both performance and other reasons.  It’s just important to ensure that your web.config file is set properly too.  If you find that the web interface is running slowly, why not check your web.config file – that the option under the <system.web></system.web> section has debug=”false”…  This will ensure a better functioning application.

Remember, if you are going to make any changes to the web.config file, take a backup of it first!

Steve