In the '90s, we were all supposed to look forward to a "marketplace of pre-built objects," which could be bolted together to build applications. That didn't mat

In the '90s, we were all supposed to look forward to a "marketplace of pre-built objects," which could be bolted together to build applications. That didn't materialize, because (as I understood it) of the industry's failure to standardize compiler output so that object libraries written in C++ could be binarily compatible with other software (someone can elaborate on this if they have more details). But there was one exception: VBXs. We did indeed write a lot of software for some very high-profile clients using drag-&-drop VBX controls, especially things like data grids. VBXs did largely deliver on the promises we all heard at the time. The other big hype at the time was how the newly unified UNIX camps were going to wrest the desktop from Microsoft. We all know how that turned out (except the people who are still saying the same about Linux...)