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How powerful and easy to pick up is Google App Script compared to VBA? Given your experience, do you see GAS overtaking VBA, and if so, in which fields? (Finan

How powerful and easy to pick up is Google App Script compared to VBA? Given your experience, do you see GAS overtaking VBA, and if so, in which fields? (Finance?) What industries were the companies you helped switch over working in? I ask because I'm while I'm roughly intermediate with VBA, I'm not sure if I should continue pursuing VBA or invest in something that might be more valuable in the future.

OJFord 9y ago
> How powerful and easy to pick up is Google App Script compared to VBA? Isn't it just JavaScript + a library?
nunez 9y ago
GAS is super easy to get (it’s JavaScript), but until you can execute scripts client-side, it won’t ever really take off. It also has the same problem that VBA has in that the code resides local to the object consuming it (spreadsheet, doc, etc), so you can’t version control it like you would for a normal application). VBA even has the advantage of being able to load .NET libraries, which is huge given that you can let the .NET VM do the heavy lifting and use VBA to lay results out onto your sheet or Word doc.
exelius 9y ago
It already has. I have multiple Fortune 500 clients who hired some offshore teams to rebuild their core VBA/Excel workbooks in GAS. Google provides ample support when you pay this much. In the early days Sheets wasn’t as good; but I would say it is better than Excel if you’re willing to spend a few million to port your complex macros. Slides still blows though. Edit: Industry largely is irrelevant; most big companies have custom software running their main production line (be that software, telecom or manufacturing). MS Office / Google Apps have a sweet spot in back-office functions. Google Apps allows a lot more automation (and most of the kids coming out of school know basic programming these days). No; it’s not as good as custom version-controlled software, but it’s a hell of a lot better than e-mailing .xlsx files back and forth. You can more or less treat a Google sheet as a lambda function, which is pretty neat.

OJFord 9y ago

> How powerful and easy to pick up is Google App Script compared to VBA? Isn't it just JavaScript + a library?

nunez 9y ago

GAS is super easy to get (it’s JavaScript), but until you can execute scripts client-side, it won’t ever really take off. It also has the same problem that VBA has in that the code resides local to the object consuming it (spreadsheet, doc, etc), so you can’t version control it like you would for a normal application). VBA even has the advantage of being able to load .NET libraries, which is huge given that you can let the .NET VM do the heavy lifting and use VBA to lay results out onto your sheet or Word doc.

exelius 9y ago

It already has. I have multiple Fortune 500 clients who hired some offshore teams to rebuild their core VBA/Excel workbooks in GAS. Google provides ample support when you pay this much. In the early days Sheets wasn’t as good; but I would say it is better than Excel if you’re willing to spend a few million to port your complex macros. Slides still blows though. Edit: Industry largely is irrelevant; most big companies have custom software running their main production line (be that software, telecom or manufacturing). MS Office / Google Apps have a sweet spot in back-office functions. Google Apps allows a lot more automation (and most of the kids coming out of school know basic programming these days). No; it’s not as good as custom version-controlled software, but it’s a hell of a lot better than e-mailing .xlsx files back and forth. You can more or less treat a Google sheet as a lambda function, which is pretty neat.