3 ms·

>VB wasn't really for xBase/FoxPro/Clipper etc users, Access and Visual FoxPro were for those I understand that perspective especially since that's what Micro

by jasode 5y ago

>VB wasn't really for xBase/FoxPro/Clipper etc users, Access and Visual FoxPro were for those I understand that perspective especially since that's what Microsoft's "official" positioning of those products were. But the reality on the ground was 4GL programmers in DOS text gui that transitioned to the "new Windows platform" usually ignored MS Access and Foxpro and instead used Visual Basic. In 1992/1993, all the corporate programmers I knew used VB3. My memory is hazy but I think one of the big drivers for VB instead of Access was the 3rd party VBX controls. I don't think you could use VBX in the crippled "Visual Basic" language in MS Access. Visual Basic had early database access with DAO (Jet engine?), then RDO. Delphi with syntax for pointers to memory (like C/C++) is a more "powerful" language than VB but I never saw Delphi adopted for corporate LOB/CRUD like VB. Most internal business apps didn't need a language with pointers. Delphi really attracted the programmers that wanted similar C/C++ power but with a rapid-iteration IDE and GUI toolkit. >Microsoft's name behind it (which was a big plus) it was used for internal corporate apps a lot, but that was a byproduct of VB being used a lot in general - during the turn of the century it was one of the most popular programming languages by far. But even with all of Microsoft's marketing weight, Visual Basic never got adopted with commercial software developers like this list for Delphi: https://jonlennartaasenden.wordpress.com/2014/11/06/famous-software-made-with-delphi/ https://jonlennartaasenden.wordpress.com/2014/11/06/famous-s... VB didn't compile to native exes. Delphi did -- and that attracts the C/C++ type of programmers who want to release commercial software. From the very beginning, VB vs Delphi attracted very different profiles of developers -- regardless of the marketing that tried to position Delphi for internal corporate LOB/CRUD apps.

badsectoracula 5y ago
Yes i was referring to the official positioning (hence the reference to Delphi's name too). In practice their uses got sort of swapped, though i think in VB's case wasn't that people didn't use it for what Microsoft intended it for but that because it was so popular it was also used for enterprise stuff. But during the 90s and early 2000s a TON of commercial applications, especially from smaller software vendors were written in VB.

by jasode 5y ago

badsectoracula 5y ago

Yes i was referring to the official positioning (hence the reference to Delphi's name too). In practice their uses got sort of swapped, though i think in VB's case wasn't that people didn't use it for what Microsoft intended it for but that because it was so popular it was also used for enterprise stuff. But during the 90s and early 2000s a TON of commercial applications, especially from smaller software vendors were written in VB.