4 ms·

Yes, ActiveX was the sauce that made VB quick and even fun to use! I tell people it was the Python of its day.

• barrkel 7y ago
  ActiveX and OCX was a generalization of VBX using OLE, a document embedding standard built on top of object-oriented RPC (COM), but with simplified typing (Variant rather than the full gamut of RPC native types). The concept of drag and drop components, and the PME (Property / Method / Event) programming paradigm is what made VB a success. VBX and OCX were implementation technologies and not really the secret sauce, except to the degree that they made the system extensible so it wouldn't be forever a toy with a fixed set of building blocks.
  • pjmlp 7y ago
    Also an idea that was explored in other 4GL tools of the day.
    • barrkel 7y ago
      Indeed, as you're probably aware as we've riffed together on this before, I worked on the Delphi compiler for a number of years.
      • pjmlp 7y ago
        Yes, just pointing out that VB and Delphi weren't alone in this, just the most accessible ones to the general public.