I've always believed it was there more for the understanding that you can mix ASP.NET tags and HTML Tags, and HTML Tags have the option of either b...

I usually don't like to guess, but I'm going to on this one... If you remember Microsoft's .NET marketing hype back in the day (2001?), it was hard...

Not all controls that can be included in a page must be run at the server. For example: <INPUT type="submit" runat=server /> This is essentially...

Microsoft Msdn article The Forgotten Controls: HTML Server Controls explains use of runat="server" with an example on text box <input type="text...

My suspicion is that it has to do with how server-side controls are identified during processing. Rather than having to check every control at run...

HTML elements in ASP.NET files are, by default, treated as text. To make these elements programmable, add a runat="server" attribute to the HTML...

It's there because all controls in ASP .NET inherit from System.Web.UI.Control which has the "runat" attribute. in the class System.Web.UI.HTMLCont...

I think that Microsoft can fix this ambiguity by making the compiler add runat attribute before the page is ever compiled, something like the type-...

If you use it on normal html tags, it means that you can programatically manipulate them in event handlers etc, eg change the href or class of an a...