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Excellent Idea :) VB was practical and useful at the time, especially as a learning tool in school. I enjoyed testing the competitors that arose to emulate its

Excellent Idea :) VB was practical and useful at the time, especially as a learning tool in school. I enjoyed testing the competitors that arose to emulate its abilities, including RapidQ Basic, Envelope Basic (a.k.a Phoenix Object Basic), some of which are documented here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC I think it would be cool to see a Documentary on programming languages, e.g. their history, rivalries, successes and downfalls, of the 80s, 90s and 2000s. If it is made correctly, with humor, it could be entertaining, perhaps even profitable.

smackeyacky 5mo ago
There is definitely a story to be told in GUI based development environments, from VisualWorks / Digitalk smalltalk to VB to Delphi. Along with the also rans (PowerBuilder, the death of Clipper and dBase systems). GUI interfaces were going to be a massive productivity goldmine compared to green screens and TUI interfaces. Now here we are back to those again in various forms and web browsers won in the end anyway. Was a wild ride in the 1990s when it was happening in earnest.
- CWuestefeld 5mo ago
  I recall an internal (never released) project at IBM in the late 1980s. It was a tool for creating client-server GUI apps, programming them with the REXX language. You may remember that client-server was all the rage at the time, and REXX was IBM's favorite scripting language. IIRC, the internal name of the project was "Red October", but I can't find any reference to this online. The tools lacked the visual GUI builder of VB, but really, that's just a detail. The rest of the framework was really quite powerful, and a GUI builder could have been added. But in true IBM fashion, they had no idea how to market something that wasn't mainframe targeted, and they killed the project. There was a fair amount of acrimony on internal forums about this at the time.
  - SilentM68 5mo ago
    You are correct. The only reference I could find to Red October is a dead link which was never archived (or has since been removed from) @ Wayback Machine Internet Archive: https://www.ibm.com/history/innovation/red-october https://www.ibm.com/history/innovation/red-october Otherwise, the other links point to the game, the movie and the cyberespionage malware attack.
- NetMageSCW 5mo ago
  Still have h floppies for Digitalk Smalltalk/V in my office at work.
CWuestefeld 5mo ago
I think you mean "Envelop" (note the lack of trailing "e"). That was a neat tool, and community, back in the day. Too bad it didn't get anywhere.
- SilentM68 5mo ago
  You are correct! I goofEd. It's hard to assimilate a human language on the fly. See that proves I am not an AI :) It's also worth mentioning Sharpdevelop.net which also gave you the choice of VB.Net or C# and another language, can't recall what it was. There were so many options available. So many books were written, sold and then became obsolete. I know because I bought tons of them at the now defunct Fry's Electronics and later donated them to the local public library. But with AI advancing, focusing on programming and earning a CS degree as a future investment does not hold the same appeal that it once did. Of course, this is just my opinion. Sol Roth: The Downvoted Man :)

smackeyacky 5mo ago

There is definitely a story to be told in GUI based development environments, from VisualWorks / Digitalk smalltalk to VB to Delphi. Along with the also rans (PowerBuilder, the death of Clipper and dBase systems). GUI interfaces were going to be a massive productivity goldmine compared to green screens and TUI interfaces. Now here we are back to those again in various forms and web browsers won in the end anyway. Was a wild ride in the 1990s when it was happening in earnest.

CWuestefeld 5mo ago
I recall an internal (never released) project at IBM in the late 1980s. It was a tool for creating client-server GUI apps, programming them with the REXX language. You may remember that client-server was all the rage at the time, and REXX was IBM's favorite scripting language. IIRC, the internal name of the project was "Red October", but I can't find any reference to this online. The tools lacked the visual GUI builder of VB, but really, that's just a detail. The rest of the framework was really quite powerful, and a GUI builder could have been added. But in true IBM fashion, they had no idea how to market something that wasn't mainframe targeted, and they killed the project. There was a fair amount of acrimony on internal forums about this at the time.
- SilentM68 5mo ago
  You are correct. The only reference I could find to Red October is a dead link which was never archived (or has since been removed from) @ Wayback Machine Internet Archive: https://www.ibm.com/history/innovation/red-october https://www.ibm.com/history/innovation/red-october Otherwise, the other links point to the game, the movie and the cyberespionage malware attack.
NetMageSCW 5mo ago
Still have h floppies for Digitalk Smalltalk/V in my office at work.

CWuestefeld 5mo ago

I think you mean "Envelop" (note the lack of trailing "e"). That was a neat tool, and community, back in the day. Too bad it didn't get anywhere.

SilentM68 5mo ago
You are correct! I goofEd. It's hard to assimilate a human language on the fly. See that proves I am not an AI :) It's also worth mentioning Sharpdevelop.net which also gave you the choice of VB.Net or C# and another language, can't recall what it was. There were so many options available. So many books were written, sold and then became obsolete. I know because I bought tons of them at the now defunct Fry's Electronics and later donated them to the local public library. But with AI advancing, focusing on programming and earning a CS degree as a future investment does not hold the same appeal that it once did. Of course, this is just my opinion. Sol Roth: The Downvoted Man :)