Content Summary : Microsoft’s Visual Basic has become a widely used development tool for developers building client-server applications.This wide use has happened despite a number of shortcomings that make the building of scaleable client-serverapplications in Visual Basic difficult.Unlike development tools like Oracle Forms 4.5, Visual Basic has limited in-built database integration and whileproducts like Oracle Objects for OLE make database access easier, there is still a requirement for a lot of developer codeto integrate Visual Basic Forms with the underlying server. Another problem with building applications using Visual Basic is the lack of support for teamworking. This problemapplies to many of the GUI tools available today, and whilst developers enjoy the flexibility and power available to themwith these tools, the management of these developments is very difficult. The definition of site standards for look and feelis a necessity and the enforcement of these standards can be a major issue when multiple developers are building parts ofan application that need to be integrated. A less attractive aspect of Visual Basic development is the lack of designdocumentation - it may be quick and easy to build applications, but this lack of documentation makes these applicationsslow and difficult to maintain. The limited scope of this documentation makes sharing design information throughoutdevelopment teams very difficult. The modelling and generation of Visual Basic applications from Designer/2000maintains comprehensive design documentation of the application for impact analysis, as well as enforcing a commonlook and feel based on a series of UI rules stored as User Preferences within the Repository.