[tedyoung]

Beta testing "Thunder" (code name for VB 1.0) was one of the most exciting things in my career. As a long time QuickBASIC user, looking longingly at those C++ developers writing Windows apps, I was floored when I got my hands on VB. I was finally able to create a graphical Windows app without having to learn C++ (which I later did, because I wanted to write VBX controls).

I did what I often do with new languages: write a stock charting and technical analysis application. Microsoft loved it and asked me if they could use it for demonstrations. They showed it off during the VB road show because they could show Microsoft's stock (up) vs. IBM's (down).

The early VB community was fun to be a part of and VB3 was the pinnacle for me. VB4 was a mess and it took until VB6 to finally get things right again, but at that point I had given up on C++ and was writing Java applets.