D
David Glass
This is an incredibly bad decision IMO. Is there someplace we can let
the decisionmakers know they need to rethink this one?
the decisionmakers know they need to rethink this one?
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J
Jim Gordon
Hi David,
A LOT of people did tell Microsoft and they listened. There will be
some support for VBA in the future.
Office 2007 still has the VBA editor and you can still run VBA add-ins.
More than a year ago Microsoft announced the decision to abandon VBA
altogether.
On the Mac side of the house, Applescript will still be supported.
For the cross-platform side of things the future is murky as mud, even
on the Windows side of things.
-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP
A LOT of people did tell Microsoft and they listened. There will be
some support for VBA in the future.
Office 2007 still has the VBA editor and you can still run VBA add-ins.
More than a year ago Microsoft announced the decision to abandon VBA
altogether.
On the Mac side of the house, Applescript will still be supported.
For the cross-platform side of things the future is murky as mud, even
on the Windows side of things.
-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP
P
Paul Berkowitz
Although the news release did not give the reason, you can rest assured it
is not at all frivolous. It has to do with the Mac moving to Intel: the VBA
compiler on the Mac cannot run on Intel Macs. On top of that, as Jim says,
Microsoft has already announced that VBA is being deprecated: although it
will continue to work on Windows for a few more years, it's going away. So
it is not worth the enormous investment that would be required to port the
Mac version to Intel, since no sooner would they manage it than it will be
ended everywhere.
The way of the future, on the Windows side, is VB.NET. In a primitive way,
..NET can already work on the Mac. So there is some hope that eventually (but
probably not too soon) things will evolve to the point that this might
become the new cross-platform mode.
In the meantime, AppleScript works as well on Mac Office (2004) as VBA does.
And AppleScript "just works" on Intel Macs. It will be possible to
"translate" VBA macros to AppleScript.
--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>
Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.
PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.
is not at all frivolous. It has to do with the Mac moving to Intel: the VBA
compiler on the Mac cannot run on Intel Macs. On top of that, as Jim says,
Microsoft has already announced that VBA is being deprecated: although it
will continue to work on Windows for a few more years, it's going away. So
it is not worth the enormous investment that would be required to port the
Mac version to Intel, since no sooner would they manage it than it will be
ended everywhere.
The way of the future, on the Windows side, is VB.NET. In a primitive way,
..NET can already work on the Mac. So there is some hope that eventually (but
probably not too soon) things will evolve to the point that this might
become the new cross-platform mode.
In the meantime, AppleScript works as well on Mac Office (2004) as VBA does.
And AppleScript "just works" on Intel Macs. It will be possible to
"translate" VBA macros to AppleScript.
--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>
Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.
PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.
J
Jim Gordon
Hi David,
Perhaps it's interesting that Paul and I have access to the same
information yet I have come to a slightly different conclusion.
The impression I got is that C# is the way of the future rather than any
flavor of VB. If I have it right, the CLR should be able to handle
either VB or C# or any other .NET supported language. How much of this
eventually gets ported to MacOS is anybody's guess at the moment.
At MacWorld Microsoft was sure that there would be a new Virtual PC for
the Mac. There won't be. Things change. Just keep your eyes and ears
peeled for developments as they occur.
-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP
Perhaps it's interesting that Paul and I have access to the same
information yet I have come to a slightly different conclusion.
The impression I got is that C# is the way of the future rather than any
flavor of VB. If I have it right, the CLR should be able to handle
either VB or C# or any other .NET supported language. How much of this
eventually gets ported to MacOS is anybody's guess at the moment.
At MacWorld Microsoft was sure that there would be a new Virtual PC for
the Mac. There won't be. Things change. Just keep your eyes and ears
peeled for developments as they occur.
-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP
D
Daiya Mitchell
This is an incredibly bad decision IMO. Is there someplace we can let
the decisionmakers know they need to rethink this one?
You can use Help | Send Feedback in any application to reach the MacBU.
However, I doubt it will help except to let you blow off steam, and I
suspect profane feedback gets automatically deleted. But you can let them
feel your pain.
Myself, I would suggest channeling such energy into making sure the MacBU
knows the breadth of what people use VBA for, so that they make sure to test
and extend the AppleScript for those arenas, or even include Automator
actions for most frequently used things, or maybe even put alternatives into
the UI for the more common stuff, like Paste Without Formatting In One
Click. I have no idea whether they are contemplating anything like that, but
letting them know what functionality you lose with VBA can't hurt.
Similarly, if you start "translating" into AppleScript earlier than later,
at least for non-cross-platform stuff, you can report any glitches you find
and hopefully get them fixed sooner rather than later.
J
Jim Gordon
Hi again,
Cross platform programmability in Office appears to be headed in the
direction of having the Common Language RunTime (CLR) environment be
ported to the Mac.
There are indications that a subset of the entire CLR is currently under
construction for the Mac platform. Check Nate Herring's blog.
http://technosloth.blogspot.com/2006/07/coreclr-at-wwdc.html
You might also read his article "How user discontent translates into
profit motive."
It's apparent that right now the CLR is not yet ready for the Mac. What
the capabilities of the final miniCLR will be have not even been
speculated about yet AFAIK.
At this stage it seems to be enough to know that at least something is
being done about the cross platform programmability aspects of Mac
Office. How it will turn out eventually is not known.
-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP
Cross platform programmability in Office appears to be headed in the
direction of having the Common Language RunTime (CLR) environment be
ported to the Mac.
There are indications that a subset of the entire CLR is currently under
construction for the Mac platform. Check Nate Herring's blog.
http://technosloth.blogspot.com/2006/07/coreclr-at-wwdc.html
You might also read his article "How user discontent translates into
profit motive."
It's apparent that right now the CLR is not yet ready for the Mac. What
the capabilities of the final miniCLR will be have not even been
speculated about yet AFAIK.
At this stage it seems to be enough to know that at least something is
being done about the cross platform programmability aspects of Mac
Office. How it will turn out eventually is not known.
-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP
D
Daiya Mitchell
More news on the VBA rationale from a MacBU blogger:
http://www.schwieb.com/blog/2006/08/08/saying-goodbye-to-visual-basic/
http://www.schwieb.com/blog/2006/08/08/saying-goodbye-to-visual-basic/
P
Paul Berkowitz
More news on the VBA rationale from a MacBU blogger:
http://www.schwieb.com/blog/2006/08/08/saying-goodbye-to-visual-basic/
And another (read schieb's first) is here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/rick_schaut/
--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>
Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.
PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.