The big picture goes back to Windows 2.x days, which may be surprising, as this takes us to before the beginnings of the World Wide Web. But theres an underlying theme here, which is application devel
The big picture goes back to Windows 2.x days, which may be surprising, as this takes us to before the beginnings of the World Wide Web. But theres an underlying theme here, which is application development. Back in the Windows 2.x days, if you wanted to write an application for Windows you had to pick up the Microsoft C compiler, the SDK (Software Development Kit) and attempt to puzzle through the frighteningly different world of multitasking in a GUI (Graphical User Interface). You had to learn how other systems on the computer displayed things, how memory was handled and how you could access storage for data.
It was horribly complicated. That is why there were very few applications written for Windows at the time and why scratchware knocked up in small companies for internal consumption simply didnt exist. The world changed with the release of Windows 3 because of Visual Basic. Instead of having to grapple with lines of C code in the strange subdialect of Windows SDK programming, you could drag and drop controls onto a form, press the Run button and your application was complete.
Things took a more serious turn when VB 3 came out because it integrated the database engine of JET into the core product and added support for external SQL databases like Oracle and SQL Server. Likewise, the much-misunderstood Access was aimed at those who sought a DB application orientated environment with great strength in database reporting.
The effect of these tools in the corporate marketplace was stunning. RAD (Rapid Application Development) was the in-word and company directors knew that the toy languages from Microsoft could build serious applications in a fraction of the time their entrenched IT departments used to using expensive tools like Oracle Forms.
With VB 4, Microsoft took the VB world to 32-bit programming and the database connectivity tools got better, if more confusing. And there it paused. Were now at VB 6, which is really a refresh of VB 5, which is, in truth, a warming over of VB 4, a 32-bit version of the seminal VB 3. However, Microsoft, with VB 3, 4, 5 and 6, had defined a high watermark in the world of two-tier application programming. You had a rich client running on the desktop, connecting to a database information store running on a server and mere mortals could create applications using this toolset.