Classic VB has been that once in a lifetime product that will be very hard for anyone to beat. Even though I was a C/C++ programmer when VB came out, I soon found the productivity benefits of using it far out weighed any perceived benefit that C/C++ had. I started using VB as a tool to prototype a windows app that I would then convert to C++. That didn’t last very long. I soon found out that if I needed to improve speed or had a difficult thing to do, it was easier to create a DLL with C++ and then call it from VB then to rewrite the entire app in C++.

VB 6.0 is the last VB. as Microsoft chose to create a new language and call it VB .NET. The .NET languages while very powerful, with tons of methods just waiting to be called, do not match VB classic for ease of use. VB had a nice 10+ year run. I don’t know what the next desktop application programming tool will be that will match or improve VB productivity. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Some useful Links:
VBRun - Microsoft’s VB 6.0 Resource Center
Microsoft Support Statement for VB 6.0 on Vista
VB Accelerator VB Classic section
VB6.us - Source code - samples

Misc:
My Thoughts on .NET