Re:Writing an app is like coding for LaserDisc
by namdnay on Monday September 05, 2022 @11:13AM
(#32725223)
For me, VB + Visual Studio was the highlight of late 90s programming - true drag&drop wysiwyg ui design, a clean link between code and ui, lightning fast prototyping. ahhh good times
Re:Writing an app is like coding for LaserDisc
by edgyquant on Monday September 05, 2022 @01:29PM
(#32726835)
It’s hilarious seeing people praise VB when at the time it was a running joke holding the same reluctant acceptance among devs as JS does today.
Re:Writing an app is like coding for LaserDisc
by blibble on Monday September 05, 2022 @04:49PM
(#32729262)
those people didn't try Borland's tools :)
(same as people who <3 visual studio today obviously haven't tried JetBrains...)
Re:Writing an app is like coding for LaserDisc
by gjvc on Monday September 05, 2022 @11:59AM
(#32725778)
correct. as an industry we threw out battle-tested GUI toolkits and programming models for something completely backward. 15-20 years later we have excel in the browser. great. The no-deployment (for deployment is too often an after-thought of the main functionality) model was too attractive and blinded people to the costs.
The 90s were great, not because they had the best experiences possible at the time, but because there was such anticipation for the future. Sadly the web did not evolve quickly enough, and we have been paying the price ever since.
The only place where GUI apps have reigned supreme is in trading applications in finance, although I suspect that dominance is beginning to erode.
the UI was consistent across the entire platform, all the accessibility worked out of the box
yes, the main advantage is that the web runs on "everything", but then the added complexity of needing 4 different programming languages and half a dozen build tools don't put it in a state where it has "never been easier"
even Java+Swing was better in pretty much every respect (other than providing employment for tens of "web developers")