And in the 90's, what people would do is to do the prototype with VB and expect to write the app in something else. But then the executives would see it, think it's 80% done because the UI was done, and push forward with it in VB. Or it would start out as a small, niche app in VB and then grow in scope.

Either way, what would start off rationally would end up in chaos. Part of that was the language, and Microsoft is to blame there; the fix, C#, came too late. But the other, larger part was the failure of component development. And that's what people miss and that's what still remains to be solved.