[AccessD] VBA question

Charlotte Foust cfoust at infostatsystems.com
Wed Apr 23 16:18:10 CDT 2003


But Drew, a module is a container, not a macro or a routine, so you
can't run a module anyhow.

Charlotte Foust

-----Original Message-----
From: Drew Wutka [mailto:DWUTKA at marlow.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 11:42 AM
To: 'accessd at databaseadvisors.com'
Subject: RE: Re[2]: [AccessD] VBA question


Step back for a minute.  There is a distinction between VBA and Macro.
However, the line is a little blurred when it comes to Word and Excel.
In Access, a macro is a macro.  It can be converted to VBA code, but
then it's code...not a macro.  Macros can simply be run by a user (in
Access, Word, and Excel).  No programming knowledge is necessary. That
is the KEY difference between what you call a macro, and what you call a
procedure.  In Access, a macro can be viewed from within the db window,
and just simply run, by pressing run.  Modules, on the other hand, can't
be directly 'run'. First, a module is not an inclusive instruction set,
since they can have a 'relatively' infinite number of procedures within.
Yes, we as programmers know how to 'run' a procedure.  (Either by
calling it from an event (or even a macro), or by using the immediate
window).  However, the beginning user knows none of that, so to them,
VBA procedures are 'invisible', and unusable (since they can't run one
on demand...)

Now, in Excel and Word, you also have Macros.  Same 'conditions' as in
Access.  The users can run them whenever they want.  They simply goto
the Macros menu and press run.  (Or use a shortcut key, etc.).  The
reason the line is a little blurry, is because the Macro is using VBA
code, not a step-by-step like Access.  Thus the macro 'is' code.  But in
reality, the macro is just 'representing' code.  The macro itself is the
process that calls the code.  You don't really 'develop' a macro, you
develop a procedure.  The macro is just the user interface to the code.
(You can also develop VBA to run on various events within
Excel/Word....and that is not associated with a Macro...)

Drew

-----Original Message-----
From: Susan Harkins [mailto:harkins at iglou.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2003 9:22 PM
To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: Re: Re[2]: [AccessD] VBA question


OK, certainly, you can "develop" with macros -- there's no argument
there. That doesn't mean a procedure is a macro.

Does anyone know if MS still uses the term macro to define procedures in
Word and Excel?

Susan H.


> Hello Bryan,
>
> BC> The problem lays in the connotation that Macro brings. It implies 
> BC> that it is something less than programming. But we all know it's 
> BC> not.
>
> Exactly, and that is where the distinction, if any, should be made.
>
> A macro is something that can be recorded and played back by anyone, 
> including those with no programming knowledge or even much experience 
> with the application and without even realizing that the macro 
> recording process is generating programming code. Under those 
> conditions, and _only_ those conditions, does a "macro" qualify for 
> it's connotation. A lot of simple stuff can be done with macros, and 
> as such they are an ignored or at best under-used resource for many.
>
> On the other hand, there are many things that simply can not be done 
> through recording a macro including the most basic of programming 
> structures such as the loop or conditional branching. Those items and 
> many others take at least some programming knowledge and skill, and 
> the result is absolutely no longer a "macro".
>
> This is a sensitive subject for me, as several years ago while working

> as a clerk I undertook a programming assignment writing extensive and 
> complex programs in Excel with the verbal agreement that I would be 
> compensated after the fact at a higher salary. When the time came, I 
> was denied the extra compensation because "all you did was do some 
> macros, that isn't programming".
>
> OK, my stupidity for taking the word of anyone, even someone I liked 
> and trusted, when money is involved. Lesson learned, and in the long 
> run it was a cheap enough price to pay to learn it. Still, we all have

> certain injustices happen to us that stick with us for years. That is 
> one of mine.
>
> Ron
>
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>

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