[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