Tribute to VB6
It’s the 10th anniversary of Visual Basic 6 (it was released in 1998) and I would like to pay tribute to the programming language that launched millions of software development careers worldwide.
First, let us take a look at VB6 in the context of Microsoft’s strategy for dominance. From the very beginning, unlike other software companies that are technology-centric, Microsoft has always been developer-centric. Microsoft understands that in order to entrench their Windows platform, they need to actively create and sustain an ecology of applications, developers, and users. After all, in terms of stability, performance and security, the Mac OS and Unix/Linux are reportedly better than Windows; but then, billions of users are locked in to Windows simply because there are more applications on it. This, in turn, creates a virtuous cycle in which developers target the Windows platform because there are billions of people using it.
The Visual Basic language and the Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is key to all this. Yes, C and C++ programmers look upon VB with undisguised scorn, but then, in the nineties, how to beat something that allows developers to create polished-looking GUI applications with drag-and-drop ease? I remember using VB4 for the first time in 1997. Coming from a C/Unix academic background, I was amazed how simple it was to create programs that looked exactly like any other professionally-developed Windows application.
Most importantly, the end user does not care about the technology behind the scenes - they want applications that are easy to use, right now. For software companies, IT departments, and freelancers, VB6 was a Godsend. Now with a very much shallower learning curve, developers could concentrate on turning user requirements into working systems. This also meant that programming was no longer the domain of the elite few who understood pointers and memory allocations; anyone who knows how to use a mouse and handle “If”s and “Else”s and “Do While”s could program. VB6 was indeed the AirAsia of software development.
My completely unscientific anecdotal survey finds that VB6 is still going strong, especially amongst home-grown and part-time programmers. There is no lack of VB6 code samples and third-party components on the Internet. There are also lots of “legacy” applications still running on VB6. So, to all .NET and Java developers out there: please give VB6 the respect that it deserves. It may not reach your standards of object-oriented purity, but at the end of the day, VB6 paid the rent of millions of developers, and hundreds of thousands of applications have been written in VB6. With an IDE that gave the world IntelliSense and breakpoint debugging, VB6 gets the job done fast.
3 Responses to “Tribute to VB6”
1 nazham 7 October 2008 @ 7:25 pm
VB6… ahh.. still remember those days when I can wrote COM objects to be used by ASP 1.0. Sure doesn’t beat C or C++, but it really cut short my dev times.
2 fadzli 8 October 2008 @ 10:03 am
my primary programming tools in the past. Have to admit it’s very simple to learn even for one with no programming knowledge. Heck my previous boss gave me few weeks to learn VB6 before start assigning project
but have to agree with you, OOP diehards always bash this programming language. lol.
3 dirn 8 October 2008 @ 12:21 pm
in 1999, i was looking for a c++ job but failed to get one. then i simply jump to some local company that require vb6 knowledge (infamous n-tier technology anyone?). that’s where it start…i’m stuck with MS technology until today.
advantage : able to get some income so that i can sustain my simple life
disadvantage : lost my c++ skills and become one of the lazy programmer that depends to much on ide
.ocx, .asp, .vb, .vbproj, regsvr32
still remember those days. love to sleep in the office
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