In 1996, it wasn't yet clear that GC languages were going to sweep the field. Yes, Perl was at its zenith. But Microsoft treated VB6 like a red-headed stepchi

In 1996, it wasn't yet clear that GC languages were going to sweep the field. Yes, Perl was at its zenith. But Microsoft treated VB6 like a red-headed stepchild in spite of its popularity. Tcl was ... okay. However, Lisps were on the downswing. Java and Javascript were just getting started. Python was considered one of the many Perl wannabes. Computer memory was just becoming cheap, and overprovisioning of RAM is what allows GC languages to flourish.