1990s PC economics produced Visual Basic. Microsoft was able to write off the development cost of the Visual Studio suite as an investment in the further entrenchment of Windows -- something no third party devtools company could directly profit from. So VB was designed to be the lowest of the low friction paths to developing software that locked users and businesses into win32. The single platform focus (supporting other platforms would have defeated the purpose) also helped keep the IDE lean and speedy.
Former VB devs pine for the usability and speed they once enjoyed. But most tech ecosystems that are self-contained enough to benefit from focused/lightweight devtools can't support a player large enough to develop them. And the ecosystems that are big enough are managed by megacorps that are more interested in brokering consumer data than streamlining the developer experience. I too would love to see a renaissance of RAD but I can't figure out who would pay for it.
Former VB devs pine for the usability and speed they once enjoyed. But most tech ecosystems that are self-contained enough to benefit from focused/lightweight devtools can't support a player large enough to develop them. And the ecosystems that are big enough are managed by megacorps that are more interested in brokering consumer data than streamlining the developer experience. I too would love to see a renaissance of RAD but I can't figure out who would pay for it.