Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0

First released in 1991, Microsoft Visual Basic was a programming environment where one could build an application by visually creating the user interface first, and then adding code. In contrast, even the smallest Visual Basic basic programs could take reams of program code to write in C or C++. Visual Basic was extremely popular for business application programming. The language itself was an interpreted BASIC dialect, however speed was maintained through the use of reusable compiled libraries (DLLs and VBX controls). These however, limited application development to Microsoft Windows.

Visual Basic easily interfaced with many database products (most notably Microsoft Access) and reporting tools (most notably Crystal Reports)

Visual Basic 3 was the most popular version under 16-bit Windows 3.1, while Visual Basic 6 was the most popular for 32-bit Windows 95/NT and later. After version 6, Visual Basic was replaced by Visual Basic .NET, an incompatible successor.

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Release notes

Visual Basic 5.0 goes fully 32-bit, dropping all support for 16-bit Windows 3.1. It can create 32-bit applications for NT 3.51 and Windows 95. This was a fairly stable and popular release, but quickly followed up by VB 6.