Shamil Salakhetdinov
shamil at users.mns.ru
Fri Jun 1 12:23:58 CDT 2007
<<< Microsoft is putting nearly a billion dollars into the next version of Office. All of that code will be .NET code. That sounds like a complete rewrite to me. >>> They (MS) will never (read: at least not in the coming ten-fifteen years) rewrite MS Office as a managed code - it doesn't make sense because managed code will be slow for such applications as MS Word, MS Excel, MS Access,... Have a look at article titled "Welcome to the 4% Operating System" on this web site - http://www.richardgrimes.com/ - it attracts the fact that managed code is OK (speedy enough) for custom application programming only not for writing code for operating systems or large application suits as MS Office is... COM will never die... As well as MS Office's COM-based core object model as this object model is now because MS Office application suite is heavily using COM technology... MS Office VBA Automation will be probably loosing its importance/usefulness' for custom applications/workflow development and the more it will loose this importance/usefulness the less VBA will be needed and then it will "die" a natural death as Latin language did... I do not have a Crystal Ball - I can be wrong... -- Shamil -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Ken Ismert Sent: Friday, June 01, 2007 8:08 PM To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com Subject: Re: [AccessD] VBA abandoned in Office 2008 for Mac (Marty) > Are you reading the same post. He is discussing 2007 macros and VBA ... Yes, the same post. Just lines below your quote, a reader asks point-blank: "However do you confirm that VBA will be supported from the next release of Access?" No answer. You can interpret that any way you care, but I don't consider that a positive confirmation that VBA will be natively supported in Office 14. A just-as-plausible interpretation is that VBA is replaced with VSTA in the next Office, and we get a separate conversion/backwards compatibility tool with read-only legacy VBA support, a-la Mac. And Office 2007 users still have 7 or 8 years of legacy support for their VBA apps. That scenario meets the letter of Clint's rather bland affirmation. Recall, all development of VB6 and VBA ceased in 1998. Microsoft has a 10-year legacy support window. Now, in 2008, VBA is gone in the latest Office release. All extended support for VB6 has ceased. It would be extraordinary for Microsoft to continue including unsupported code in its upcoming Office releases. Microsoft is putting nearly a billion dollars into the next version of Office. All of that code will be .NET code. That sounds like a complete rewrite to me. In my view, the consequences of thinking maybe its time to look at new technologies are only positive, while the consequences of assuming VBA will always be around are neutral at best, and could potentially be bad for your career, if you do lose your bet. So, I think it is incumbent on the 'VBA forever' side to come up with the home-run: a clear affirmation of native VBA support in Office 14 from a credible source. -Ken -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com