Visual Basic 1.0

Visual Basic 1.0 for Microsoft Windows was released in 1991 supporting Windows 3.0. Although it could compile applications into an executable, the executable was really comprised of P-code that was interpreted by the mandatory runtime library, VBRUN100.DLL. It was revolutionary for its time in allowing point-and-click UI construction, and a relatively simple language to script together interface actions. Given the demand for Windows applications, the relative simplicity of the tasks, and the relative complexity of coding for Windows in native C, Visual Basic proved to be extremely popular.

Among other things, Visual Basic 1.0 introduced the concept of a VBX control, which was a DLL that provided a UI element that could be interacted with via properties and methods. Unfortunately, Visual Basic could not produce DLLs itself, so it proved a good place to consume reusable components but could not provide its own.