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Rubberduck – COM add-in that enables IDE features in the Visual Basic Editor

rubberduckvba.com

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Re: Rubberduck – COM add-in that enables IDE features in the Visual Basic Editor

#11

Post by zcrackerz »

rob74 wrote: post #3

I had to actually google "Visual Basic Editor" to find out why it was a thing people are still using in this century, and found out that it's the editor for VBA macros in MS-Office applications. So "Visual Basic Editor" is a bit of a misnomer...

Thanks, I was thinking VB6, which I thought was relatively fine as an IDE for its time, although could probably benefit from some ReSharper-style improvements.

Re: Rubberduck – COM add-in that enables IDE features in the Visual Basic Editor

#14

Post by markus_zhang »

gadders wrote: post #2

I got this approved at a previous employer when I was writing some VBA/Jira automation. It's.. OK. I found it slowed down my environment quite a bit and was unstable. I stopped using it eventually.

Yeah I had the same experience. But then I realized that I need to get rid of VBA so I turned to other tools.

Re: Rubberduck – COM add-in that enables IDE features in the Visual Basic Editor

#15

Post by Renaud »

rob74 wrote: post #3

I had to actually google "Visual Basic Editor" to find out why it was a thing people are still using in this century, and found out that it's the editor for VBA macros in MS-Office applications. So "Visual Basic Editor" is a bit of a misnomer...

It's a bit reductive to call it "the editor for VBA macros", it's like calling Visual Studio a "template editor" because you get a set of template files when you create a new project.

The purpose of VBE is to build applications, it's an IDE. Add-ins like Rubberduck are actually very useful in extending the capabilities of VBE and there are still millions of people using VBA every day to solve business problems.

Re: Rubberduck – COM add-in that enables IDE features in the Visual Basic Editor

#16

Post by pcdoodle »

I use VB6 all the time. Need to quickly get some custom serial port thingy written? VB6. Want to make a quick window that hosts 4 embedded VLC COM instances to watch RTSP camera streams? VB6. My craziest use case out in the field was: Wall mounting a spare mouse and soldering two wires to the left button inside, running a wire back to the office with the computer playing pandora and then writing a quick app to turn down the wave out and un mute Mic In so the restaurant owner make announcements over the loudspeakers. The code was already out there for the mixer, I just had to add a line for monitoring the parallel port and adjust the sliders in someone elses code.

Re: Rubberduck – COM add-in that enables IDE features in the Visual Basic Editor

#17

Post by markus_zhang »

gitgud wrote: post #6

> "Bring the VBE into this century!" This actually gave me goosebumps... Are there many modern use-cases for Visual Basic? All I can think of is horrible scripting code for Excel, Word and AutoCAD

I think VB is still a fine compiled language and you can find a lot of use cases. On the other hand, VBA is used mostly by people who have to maintain old Office applications and basically live in MS Office. VBA is still the first choice to automate MS Office.

That's the reason I want to stay away from MS Office lol.

Re: Rubberduck – COM add-in that enables IDE features in the Visual Basic Editor

#18

Post by sunnyP »

jahlqvis wrote: post #5
gadders wrote: post #2

I got this approved at a previous employer when I was writing some VBA/Jira automation. It's.. OK. I found it slowed down my environment quite a bit and was unstable. I stopped using it eventually.

I've had the same experience with RubberDuck. MZ-tools ( https://www.mztools.com/ ) on the other hand is a VBA tool I couldn't work without. Doesn't slow the IDE down and stable as a rock.

I agree with you MZ-tools has been a big productivity boost for me.

Re: Rubberduck – COM add-in that enables IDE features in the Visual Basic Editor

#19

Post by jablan »

Renaud wrote: post #15
rob74 wrote: post #3

I had to actually google "Visual Basic Editor" to find out why it was a thing people are still using in this century, and found out that it's the editor for VBA macros in MS-Office applications. So "Visual Basic Editor" is a bit of a misnomer...

It's a bit reductive to call it "the editor for VBA macros", it's like calling Visual Studio a "template editor" because you get a set of template files when you create a new project. The purpose of VBE is to build applications, it's an IDE. Add-ins like Rubberduck are actually very useful in extending the capabilities of VBE and there are still millions of people using VBA every day to solve business problems.

Most people associate Visual Basic with, well, Visual Basic (as in VB6 or VB.net), not with VBA. Even the top voted comment refers to VB6. "VBA editor" instead of "VB editor" would solve the confusion I guess.

Re: Rubberduck – COM add-in that enables IDE features in the Visual Basic Editor

#20

Post by Bishonen88 »

Add Javascript to VBA and allow users to use WebStorm or VS and we'd have something great. I gave Rubberduck a go a few years ago and was rather underwhelmed when compared to a real IDE (which is understandable, as Rubberducks creators don't have $$$ behind them)
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