History of Visual Basic (Chapter 1)
This article outlines the early history of Visual Basic, tracing its roots from Dartmouth BASIC in 1964 through Microsoft's acquisition of Alan Cooper's Tripod and the development of QuickBASIC. It highlights key figures and projects, such as Project Thunder, that led to the 1991 launch of Visual Basic. The piece emphasizes the importance of preserving the stories of influential but often overlooked contributors to the language's evolution.
- ▪Visual Basic's origins are traced back to Dartmouth BASIC, developed in 1964.
- ▪Microsoft's BASIC lineage began in 1975 with Bill Gates and Paul Allen.
- ▪Alan Cooper's Tripod, acquired by Microsoft, became the foundation for Visual Basic.
- ▪Project Thunder merged Ruby and Embedded Basic to create the prototype for Visual Basic.
- ▪A sibling version, VB/DOS, was released alongside VB/Windows in the early 1990s.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
~ / books / visual-basic-history // DRAFT — this book is a work in progress. Content may change. 1 chapter │ 6 articles │ updated 2026.04.27 │ by EvilGenius A History of Visual Basic The thirty-five-year arc of Microsoft Visual Basic — lineage, people, and decisions. Especially the people who don't get named in the existing histories. From Dartmouth BASIC in 1964 through the Microsoft acquisition of Alan Cooper's Tripod, the QuickBASIC dynasty, the VB6 peak, and the long .NET-shaped shadow VB6 still casts. Salvage work — the original BASIC creators are already gone, the rest of the dynasty is ageing, and the stories need to be collected before the window closes.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at EvilGeniusLabs.ca.
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