[ezy]

Similarly, you had to do a lot of peeks and pokes in most 8bit BASICs to really get at the machine. But you could still do something reasonably worthwhile. I don't want to imply that you could do everything. The main idea is simply that you could do quite a bit, and it really did look and feel decent compared to apps of the day. As the systems got more advanced, it became harder or perhaps just less of a priority to empower your average novice.

I've never thought of VB being for an ordinary joe in the same way builtin BASICs were -- it was more of a macro language for Office, and a platform specific COBOL, not an entry-level environment. But I don't have enough direct experience -- perhaps I'm wrong about that...