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Office 365 is being completely rewritten in JavaScript

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Re: Office 365 is being completely rewritten in JavaScript

#391

Hi there, original tweeter here. Just to clarify: no one said when this work would land, simply that we are working on it! Sorry to disappoint XD, but I guess blame the OP.

Does this mean that VBA will finally die? Please tell me that VBA will finally die.

VBA is really useful and it's not like there is something to replace it, so I hope it does not die.

Re: Office 365 is being completely rewritten in JavaScript

#392
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"No they are not electron apps. They are compiled to native code. It's now finally one toolchain(#webpack) It's one codebase and it compiles to: Web Android IOS MacOS UWP WIN32 (only one that uses electron) 7:52 AM · Jun 13, 2018" https://mobile.twitter.com/TheLarkInn/status/100676113439583...

comment seems to be saying -- in modern windows (UWP) it'll be using native code, but microsoft is taking the easy path on win32. i guess some people are surprised that despite years of telling people that win32 is going away microsoft is finally making good. but I am not, I'm more excited than anything at another good sign that Microsoft is finally done with legacy windows.

Hell, I hate all my old software just working too. I'd much rather get half-baked versions of everything that don't have all the same features.

Re: Office 365 is being completely rewritten in JavaScript

#393
post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

because it is not a pile of trash. the programmer can be a pile of trash though.

So I think “pile of trash” might be a bit too far, but JavaScript is a weird choice for one major reason: most languages have several objective technical and strategiec advantages. JavaScript has exactly two: it is the only language available in a browser, and it is on a large number of people’s resumes. There is no technical dimension of JavaScript that makes it the best choice for any task outside the browser, and…

>There is no technical dimension of JavaScript that makes it the best choice for any task outside the browser

Seriously?

How about async-everything?

Re: Office 365 is being completely rewritten in JavaScript

#394
post #250
post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps we should reflect on why people do indeed use his language, warts 'n all? Are you suggesting C or Haskell are without their problems? What is your definition of a "good" language?

Good languages are local maxima in the language design landscape. C is a good language. As is Python. And C#. There are many projects for which C or Python or C# are fine language choices. Other languages have great ideas in them, but the languages themselves are a mixed bag. Perl, Java, C++. Perl inspired Ruby. Java inspired C#. But we haven't seen a good successor to C++ yet, probably because building a systems lan…

> good successor to C++

Maybe D, but outside Facebook nobody really uses it.

Re: Office 365 is being completely rewritten in JavaScript

#395

I know the architecture too good, more than I need as I was leaving MS recently. This tweet is not likely to happen. Talking about desktop apps, this doesn't make any sense. Office apps have millions of lines in code and many years of lost knowledge between the classes. Just too many screens, checkboxes and features. A complete bloatware. Buy MS doesn't take any feature off the app- if you have 1B users, most likely…

The way I see it, even saying that this is the goal is bad news. It's basically an official admission that Microsoft intends to abandon the Desktop OS entirely. Windows 10's bullshit isn't just some bump in the road that would eventually be recognized as the bad idea that it is, it's a deliberate move to push people off of Windows Desktop and on to Windows tablets, smartphones, and a desktop web kiosk. Windows as a p…

> Windows as a personal computing Desktop OS would be completely dead, and given the state of the alternatives that means that personal computing desktops are also dead.

Maybe, or maybe it would open up an opportunity for more competition. Who knows? Maybe the year of the Linux desktop is still coming :)

Re: Office 365 is being completely rewritten in JavaScript

#396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh god please I hope they have. In my experience, dynamically typed scripting languages struggle to keep up with the rigorous structure enforced by statically typed languages once the project gets large enough. Yes, in theory you _can_ write big projects well in dynamically typed languages, but in practice you get a mess of undocumented interfaces and unit tests that don't quite catch the plethora of errors not prese…

Typescript doesn’t have much Hindley Milner in it since it has way too much sub typing (even if it’s all structural).

Too bad they didn't go with row types instead of structural sub-typing. Though that might not have matched with their goals of being able to type existing JavaScript. Not sure.

Re: Office 365 is being completely rewritten in JavaScript

#397
post #141
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah it's fine, just upgrade to Win10 and buy your license through the windows store! UWP isn't using electron! What's that? Win32 a second class citizen? Never!

UWP doesn't run on win7. If you think getting rid of WinXP was hard, wait to see the phasing out of Win7. If you write for the desktop, chances are you are writing an internal app. Lots of large enterprises (including my present employer) just switched to Win7. Win10 is a looong way ahead. A significant part of your userbase won't be able to touch a UWP app for a long time.

I wish Win10 never happened, but: How does your employer aquire hardware for win7? We have trouble buying Thinkpads that still run win7.

It was a very smart move of MS to kill newer chipsets :-(

If they hadn't done that, win10 would have completely tanked

Re: Office 365 is being completely rewritten in JavaScript

#398

Hi there, original tweeter here. Just to clarify: no one said when this work would land, simply that we are working on it! Sorry to disappoint XD, but I guess blame the OP.

Why not Typescript, btw?

I'd almost guarantee that it's Typescript. But being a superset of Javascript, it's still correct to call it Javascript.

Re: Office 365 is being completely rewritten in JavaScript

#399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, I think the opposite is true. Instead of seeing new desktop versions without feature parity, we will finally see the iOS/Android/MacOS/Web versions of the Office Suite get feature parity with the Win32 versions because they will all be built from the same codebase. I know that it's common for rewrites to not approach feature parity, but I think Microsoft is aware of how much people rely on Excel and Word an…

I find it hard to believe they will ever duplicate all the edge cases. I mean in some cases it's literally impossible because IIRC VBA can actually hook into Win32 functions (I mean I guess you might argue that feature is a bad idea)

If VBA can hook into WIN32 functions, why do you think a VBA parser/interpreter written in JavaScript using a native module that exposes the same WIN32 functions couldn’t do the same

Re: Office 365 is being completely rewritten in JavaScript

#400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Typescript doesn’t have much Hindley Milner in it since it has way too much sub typing (even if it’s all structural).

Too bad they didn't go with row types instead of structural sub-typing. Though that might not have matched with their goals of being able to type existing JavaScript. Not sure.

Exactly. Going structural was purely to match JavaScript interop. Heck, even Dart went with nominal sub typing, it isn’t a very common choice fo an non-functional language.
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