The conversation

fabianholzerHNSource authorMar 17, 2023

Lessons learnedExperience excerpt · English

The WYSIWYG GUI builder that VB provided, I have never encountered afterwards again in quite that …

The WYSIWYG GUI builder that VB provided, I have never encountered afterwards again in quite that manner. Now, in VBs heyday the field of UX design we now have as a profession adjacent to software development was in its infancy and was usually an implicit part of the developers job. What was lost with the demise of the RAD tools was a potentially shared medium of expression. Today designers build Potemkin villages in Figma and the likes, throw them over the fence and as a developer I then need to reverse-engineer them. How much more productive would it be if they didn't throw something over the fence but would actually build the UI in the same tool that the developer uses to write the logic behind it? And another thing: I don't know if I had gotten into the field without BASIC. I started with QBasic, because it was the only thing readily available and switched over to VB when I got my hands on a students' edition. The thing that distinguished these two from educational environments like Scratch or Logo is that I could build actually useful stuff for myself with it.

Original discussionSomething Pretty Right: The History and Legacy of Visual Basic 259 source comments · at import

Community replies 0

No community replies yet. Add your perspective.

Replies from the source 2

Direct replies available in this import. Original-language excerpts.

hahamrfunnyguyHNMar 17, 2023

I think the WYSIWYG WPF and Silverlight tools were pretty close to VB6 level of usability. The tools are great for building a quick UI, but I think they fall short for more complex applications. This is why designers have their own preferences when it comes to designing the UX, to give them the flexibility to create the UI as they see fit. When different teams are working on a shared goal, there can always an element of "throw it over the fence". As a developer, I always saw part of my job as getting plugged in with the other teams as much as possible. Providing continuous advisement and feedback on UX patterns as projects progress really helps things move smoothly.

Full original

JoeriHNMar 17, 2023

The WYSIWYG GUI builder that VB provided, I have never encountered afterwards again in quite that manner. At the time I think delphi did that concept in a better way, and I definitely switched from VB to Delphi as soon as I learned about it. Delphi still exists to this day. There are also many low code platforms which have a VB-like UI builder, like mendix, or outsystems or microsoft’s power platform, but they tend to be a bit too enterprisey where VB was really the people’s champion. I think canvas apps in power platform give much of the “feel” of dragging and dropping visual basic forms and let you build actually useful stuff, while targeting web and mobile. The downside of power platform is that as soon as you try to do anything serious with it you need the premium stuff and end up paying a lot. That makes it less suited to take up the niche that VB and Access had, because that niche…

Full original

Continue on Hacker News

Respect different perspectives. Share concrete experiences.