I'm struggling with this question at the moment...
Basically I'm pulling a set of data out of a DB table related to our LOB application, listing it, and then want to click through from this list to another page detailing the selected entity. Say, as an example, I have Students. I want to list them on one page, and then clicking on a particular student takes you to a page for that student (where maybe you can edit the student, or click to view info about the Course they are on, Modules they have taken, etc..)
I was doing this in a web part, but then realized -- when I click on a student to go to another page, well, where do I go? Web parts don't really seem to fit the bill. So, would it make more sense to use aspx/ascx application pages here? They seem more suited to the idea of navigating around distinct parts of an application.
I found this page discussing the issues: http://grounding.co.za/blogs/brett/archive/2008/07/13/sharepoint-the-role-of-a-web-part-vs-using-application-pages.aspx -- it seems like good advice, does it tally up with other people's experience?