[makmanalp]

When .NET finally came out and I started learning about it (I had signed up for a course at this point) I remember it feeling much more complicated - I didn't understand why I needed objects and I also recall not understanding access modifiers like protected / private - who am I protecting my code from? The book I got for the course was like an encyclopedia. I failed the microsoft certification exam, not surprisingly. I was just finishing middle school and starting high school so it didn't really matter.

I think there's probably some lesson in there about microsoft misunderstanding the strength of VB as a RAD tool for mom and pop shops and non-software firms who have a single tinkerer, rather than an Enterprise Language. It died a slow death in favor of C# at that point. Embrace, extend, extinguish, perhaps.