Why do people still use VBA?
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Why do people still use VBA?
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Re: Why do people still use VBA?
#2Corps have a dev environment sitting right in Excel that doesn't need special (management, management's management, adding to a registrar of projects, budgeting or project manager assigned, etc) approval for non-stock software. The stack's Excel, plus Sharepoint if you're really looking for a networked data store that also has a web interface.
From that end-user direction, solutions emerge. And they're in VBA.
Re: Why do people still use VBA?
#3Corps have a dev environment sitting right in Excel that doesn't need special (management, management's management, adding to a registrar of projects, budgeting or project manager assigned, etc) approval for non-stock software. The stack's Excel, plus Sharepoint if you're really looking for a networked data store that also has a web interface. From that end-user direction, solutions emerge. And they're in VBA.
That's exactly why I use it. Only dev environment available to me.
Re: Why do people still use VBA?
#4Think this is the same guy that makes videos about vim? Didn't know he had other types of content, he's good at conveying information.
Edit: regarding the video embedded in article
Re: Why do people still use VBA?
#5Because it’s amazing! /s
Years ago, I heard that JP Morgan had +20k access databases on their network. The data analysts that make up companies far and wide one day discovered that they hate what they’re doing every day. They investigate the “record macro” button. Some might even find it nifty. They use it again and again. Some may even try to get smart and investigate and get curious of the code that it spat out. Some might even go further and attempt to learn enough to change some things around.
A handful might just learn data structures and algorithms to build out a auth / permission system that mimics Django. Might rebuild the UserForm UI from scratch. Implement markdown, sax parsing, custom scroll bar, logging, games.
The answer is because a data analyst probably got bored of what they’re doing every day.
Re: Why do people still use VBA?
#6Why do Linux/Unix/Mac developers write shell scripts, when there are so many better languages out there? A large part is it integrates well with the shell and it is ubiquitous.
VBA is basically the scripting language of Office. It integrates well with Microsoft Office, and in a business environment, pretty much everyone has access to it.
Are there better languages? Sure. However, it is hard to beat the integration and ubiquity.
And, VBA is a much, much better language than (ba)sh script!
Re: Why do people still use VBA?
#7Apparently it's so ubiquitous that you don't even need to say what it is, every just knows.
I looked it up -- VBA=Visual Basic for Applications.
Re: Why do people still use VBA?
#8Because Excel is the highest velocity application development tool. It's total shit after the first week but it's very very quick prior to that.
Re: Why do people still use VBA?
#9Because Excel is the highest velocity application development tool. It's total shit after the first week but it's very very quick prior to that.
Excel is by far the most used no-code/low-code platform, IMO.
Re: Why do people still use VBA?
#10Corps have a dev environment sitting right in Excel that doesn't need special (management, management's management, adding to a registrar of projects, budgeting or project manager assigned, etc) approval for non-stock software. The stack's Excel, plus Sharepoint if you're really looking for a networked data store that also has a web interface. From that end-user direction, solutions emerge. And they're in VBA.
That's exactly why I use it. Only dev environment available to me.
Windows ships with VBScript, JScript, CMD, C#, and PowerShell right out of the box. I recall interviewing a college guy around 2018, and he tried to educate me about how Windows doesn't have a good command line / scripting / automation solution beyond command.com. I think I still said "hire" because he had other talents, but damn.