Visual Basic 6 - Part 2

The History of Visual Basic

Alan Cooper, the 'Father' of Visual Basic, shows a drag-and-drop shell prototype called
Tripod to Bill Gates. Microsoft negotiates to buy the concept, now code-named Ruby.The Tool includes a widget control box, the ability to add widgets dynamically, and a small language engine.IMB Computers introduced their first PC in August of 1981. The original versions
shipped with MS-DOS and a light version of BASIC. By DOS 5.0, M
icrosoft had upgraded the early version of BASIC to Q-BASIC, a more powerful version. With the introduction of Windows 3x, the desire for a more graphical programming language led to the introduction of Visual Basic.

Visual Basic 1.0 was not considered a serious programming language when it was first
introduced. It was an off-shoot of Basic which was being used for many applications in
DOS programming. The advent of Windows saw the need and desire for graphical
programming tools and VB was born. Up to this point, most programming was done in C,
Assembly code, or one of the off-shoots such as COBOL (main-frame computers). The
first release of VB was considered to be a "toy" language. It did not support database
programming but one thing was evident, it was easy to use.
The release of VB 2.0 didn't add much in the way of functionality but the beginning of
database development began to form during this time.

With the release of VB 3.0 the new language began to be taken seriously. Built-in
database support for the Jet database engine, support for 16-bit applications (new at this
time), and VBX modules showed that the "toy" language could indeed be a serious
program for the developer. One major step foreword with VB 3.0 was the introduction of
Data Access Objects (DAO). This database interface is the standard database program
that VB users learn.

With the introduction of VB 4.0 the addition of support for 32-bit applications was
introduced. The language was essentially two versions, one for 16-bit applications and
one for 32-bit applications. At this point support for 32-bit OCX controls began. Remote
Data Objects (RDO) was first introduced in VB 4.0.

VB 4.0 also added some new features including creating OLE custom controls and
DLL's. It also provided better compatibility with the new release of Access 2.0 database.
The really big boast to Visual Basic came with the introduction of VB 5.0. With it new
project types were introduced including ActiveX, ActiveX DLL's, and ActiveX documents.
The compiler included with Visual Basic was also revamped so that it supported both the
original P-Code compiler (pseudocode) and a native code compiler. VB 5.0 was a
tremendous step up for the once, primitive programming language.

The release of VB 6.0 was mostly an upgrade to VB 5.0. It extended the database
functionality and added several new tools to the developer’s toolbox including support for
the ADO data control. VB had come along way at this point and was being used for
many of the applications needing database support.