There's an interesting interview with Alan Cooper about the subject up on Channel 9 (and a lot of other stuff, Alan pulls no punches :). I did find it odd tha

There's an interesting interview with Alan Cooper about the subject up on Channel 9 (and a lot of other stuff, Alan pulls no punches :). I did find it odd that "Ruby" (what became VB) was suppose to be the "shell for windows " and allow user to "design their os". Maybe I misunderstood that part because it sounds like a recipe for disaster :) http://channel9.msdn.com/Series/VisualStudioDocumentary/The-Visual-Studio-Documentary-Alan-Cooper-the-Father-of-Visual-Basic http://channel9.msdn.com/Series/VisualStudioDocumentary/The-... I give great kudos to Alan Cooper, his book "The Inmates are running the asylum" was a paradigm shift for me. Once you've read it you have a little Alan inside your head for the rest of your life, telling you how stupid, impolite and lazy most software is. It's annoying but highly effective. Really recommend it for anyone who hasn't read it. He's a bit rabid in his aversion to developers designing, but if you can look past that it contains many gems