I also got a copy of VB (I think VB4) as a teenager and it was a perfect stepping stone into GUI programming. I had been writing DOS games in QBASIC for years,

I also got a copy of VB (I think VB4) as a teenager and it was a perfect stepping stone into GUI programming. I had been writing DOS games in QBASIC for years, and some basic (heh) C/C++. But the leap to writing Windows apps in C++ was terrifying. There was so much more to learn. What the heck is an SDK and why does the Windows SDK contain like 5 trillion different functions, many of which have ALMOST the same name and method signature? What is an event? What on earth is a CORBA or an OLE? As a teen with no mentor and no resources besides books and the early web it was overwhelming. But VB did so much of the work for you. And it was BASIC, which I already knew well. So it was exactly what I needed to understand the fundamentals without having to boil the whole ocean at once just to get a window with a button on my screen. Agree it wasn't really suitable for large scale projects (although it got used for them anyway heh). Somehow VB apps always looked and felt "wrong", like they were a cheap knockoff. But for learning, and writing quick non-commercial apps, it was just right. All that said, I feel no nostalgia or desire to go back.