Evolution of VB.NET

Before VB .NET, there was VB and before there was VB, there was BASIC. BASIC stands for Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. It was developed in 1963 by computer scientists John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz in Dartmouth College. It was a general purpose programming language that was intended for beginners. In 1975, when the MITS Altair 8800 Microcomputer was released, BASIC became Altair BASIC, developed by the computer heavyweights Bill Gates and Paul Allen. During the eighties, when the personal computer was starting to get into everyone's homes, the BASIC computer language started to lose its hold on the market because more and more people and corporations were using computer programs for complex tasks rather than simple and "basic" tasks. In 1991, BASIC was infused with its Visual component and became Visual Basic. The new graphical user interface was pioneered by Alan Cooper. Visual Basic was not an instant hit at first due to compatibility issues but it began getting a solid following in the mid to late nineties when developers started becoming familiar with it. In the new millennium, the Visual Basic .NET became the successor of the Visual Basic programming languages.