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> (Why do you think Office still lives and breathes VB6-era VBA?) It still supports vba because their customers won't allow them to kill it, not because they h
by resoluteteeth 5y ago
> (Why do you think Office still lives and breathes VB6-era VBA?)
It still supports vba because their customers won't allow them to kill it, not because they haven't tried to replace it (e.g. JavaScript has been the recommended way to make extensions for a while).
- DaiPlusPlus 5y agoThe JS API/environment was for “apps” that load in side-bar panes in Office 365’ desktop and web titles - it didn’t have access to the same COM automation API that VBA uses, let alone things like the local file system, registry (God-forbid), local network, etc. The story is a bit of a mess, but VBA is still the only way to use the COM API and access local system resources: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/scripts/resources/vba-differences https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/scripts/resource...
- resoluteteeth 5y ago> The JS API/environment was for “apps” that load in side-bar panes in Office 365’ desktop and web titles - it didn’t have access to the same COM automation API that VBA uses, let alone things like the local file system, registry (God-forbid), local network, etc. They don't allow unsecured access the local system, thankfully, but Javascript add-ins are basically equivalent to the actual Excel COM API. You're linking to an "office scripts" page which is for a more recent macro-recorder like functionality, but the actual javascript api (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/javascript/api/excel?view=excel-js-preview https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/javascript/api/excel?view=e...) is fairly complete and basically equivalent to the Excel COM API that you would use through VBA. It is also not limited to sidebars.
- DaiPlusPlus 5y agoHuh - weird. I have seen references to this before but when I was writing my earlier reply I tried to find it but couldn't. But thanks!