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Here’s a free verse ode to my very first computer programming language, good old BASIC:

Remember BASIC?
Good old BASIC?
Beginner’s All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code.
A language designed for infant programmers.
FOR I=1 TO 10
NEXT I
How easy is that?
So nine-year-olds write programs in BASIC.
 
But, hey, we did some stuff with good old BASIC.
Stuff way beyond the nine-year-olds.
But,.. show of hands,..
Who remembers making a linked list?
With an array.
Anyone? Anyone?
 
Is VB way better than good old BASIC?
It’s not called Enterprise and Professional as a joke.
It’s all growed up!
No longer the remembered childhood friend.
Set DS=OpenDatabase()
Set RS=DS.OpenRecordset()
MoveFirst()
MoveNext()
How easy is that?
So corporate guys write programs in BASIC.
 
But is VB is a kiddie language?
Yeah, sorta, maybe.
Like a toothless dog or de-clawed cat.
It’s fun, it’s safe, it’s easy to do neat stuff.
It has seductive GUI TinkerToys.
In many languages the GUI absent, crude, or excruciating.
 
VB is cool. Totally cool.
In fact, it’s RAD!
For me, it was love at first sight; her name was VB1.
By VB3, the relationship was in full swing.
Like infant MS DOS 1 growing to adult Windows 2000,
VB matured to a fine figure of a language.
 
But as a spouse is not appropriate everywhere,
VB is not always the answer to the question.
I don’t always fish with the people I go to ballgames with.
Isn’t life richer with a separate crowd in your sports leagues?
And work can be yet another disjoint set.
 
Not all X is ever Y.
A simple truth.
It’s proven by its own self-referential exception:
All X is Y?
No. Not usually. Not hardly ever.
 
Not all X is Y.
Not *always* true, but true enough.
True enough to trust.
 
There is no One True Operating System or Best Editor.
No Language is Fastest or Mostest or FitsAllSizesest.
There is no Perfect Design Flavor.
There is no Silver Bullet.
 
To suggest otherwise is to believe the absurd.
That Carpenters need only a one Saw, Hammer and Screwdriver.
That Painters need only one Brush, Board and Color.
That Guitar Players need only one Axe, Pick and Strings.
 
END