[AccessD] Demise of VBA

...its one thing to screw with VB developers Ken ...that can be done at a 
relatively low level within MS ...but when you start screwing with the 
Office revenue stream you move waaaaaay up the MS food chain ...so far the 
.net evangelists have closed their ears to the VB6 crowd, but they won't be 
the only ones listening to the Office/VBA mob howling ...especially if the 
cash registers stop ringing.

...I'm encouraged by the inside politics that took control of Access Jet 
away from the SQL/ADO evangelists and put it in the hands of the Access 
development team where it always belonged ...those people appear to be DAO 
oriented, at least their first moves after being set free give that 
impression ...and anything that smells of DAO inevitably bodes well for VBA 
imnsho.

...no question but that VBA has languished of late while ADO and SQL were 
ascendant ...but the combination of Office VBA buried in the corporate 
bedrock and a newly invigorated Access development team looks to at least 
even the playing field ...we may yet go .net but it looks more and more as 
if that will be an easily ported vba.net.

...just my opinion of course ...and experience near the top of the food 
chain where evangelists almost always lose to the bottom line ...a bottom 
line that greatly favors a new generation of vba.

William

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kenneth Ismert" <kismert at sbcglobal.net>
To: <accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 12:31 PM
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Demise of VBA


> William, Erwin:
>
>> ...and thus I would believe the imminent demise of vba is greatly
>> exaggerated.
>
> As much as I would like to agree, it just ain't so. VB6 will be gone in
> less than two years:
>
>  Product Family Life-Cycle Guidelines for Visual Basic 6.0
>  http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbrun/support.aspx
>
>    "Non-Supported Phase ... Visual Basic 6.0 will no longer
>    be supported starting March 2008."
>
> VBA's fate is in grave doubt, too:
>
>  Classic VB Petition FAQ
>  http://classicvb.org/petition/faq.asp
>
>    "... But, no development has occurred on the VBA IDE in over
>    eight years; the team has been abandoned. New versions of
>    Office continue, at this point, to ship with this very old
>    technology."
>
> Does this look like a platform they plan to keep?
>
>>...and thus replacing [VBA] with VS.Net would be like replacing
>> Coca Cola Classic with new Coke ...the masses that feed the golden
>> goose would rebel...
>
> Funny you should mention that. The VB6 masses have already rebelled.
> Microsoft ignored them. See:
>
>  Classic VB
>  http://classicvb.org/
>
> Do you think the current Office user base is sufficient deterrent
> against abandoning VBA? Don't be so sure. Microsoft walked away from 6
> million VB programmers:
>
>  ...The Disaster Known As Visual Basic
>  http://www.bitwisemag.com/copy/bytegeist/bytegeist7.html
>
> Agreed, Microsoft is in a predicament with Office/VBA:
>
>  Office and .NET: Better Together?
> http://www.ftponline.com/vsm/2002_08/magazine/departments/guestop/default.aspx
>
> Although it will be painful for them, I feel the most likely scenario
> is that Microsoft will walk away from VBA 1-2 years after the Vista
> rollout, assuming it is successful.
>
> Their message to us, I feel, is clear: Change, or die.
>
> -Ken
>
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>