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Well, the signs have been there. Even in XL 2004 the VBA was still based on VB5. Now with this announcement CNET News.
This now complicates the cross-platform use of Office.Quote:
The company said the next version of the Mac Office will discontinue support for Visual Basic scripting. However, it will add better support for Mac scripting methods such as AppleScript and Automator.
Hi Rich,
Are Visual Basic scripting and VBA one and the same? I interpreted scripting as VBS. It doesn't actually reference VBA in the article at all...
I think they were referring to Visual Basic for Applications by saying Visual Basic scripting, because VBA and VBS are definitely not the same. It's too bad they couldn't all just get along.
Yeah, it's VBA. Of course, we have been crippled by VBA on the Mac side for years. This just makes it official.
On Ars Technica, the discussion has brought up a point I made - perhaps cross-platform 3rd party programming is the way to go. Perl and Python are natively shipped with OS X, and now it has just been announced that Ruby will ship on all Macs. I dabbled in Python a couple of years ago, so don't know, but that might at least keep some semblance of cross-platform capability.
My thinking is that Apple will now expand/enhance iWork (Pages and Keynote) to incorporate some spreadsheet along with Mail and iCal to provide some Office Suite. Keynote is far ahead of Powerpoint in several ways. Pages offers a very good writing environment (doesn't get in the way like Word tries to do), but it has nowhere near the Word capabilities. I personally use Mellel because it handles Hebrew and Greek so well (it is designed/developed in Israel).
It's been rumored for some time:Quote:
Originally Posted by shades
http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0607charts2.html
Like you say, Apple's "Office" has some catching up to do. But when you consider that most of the useful features of Word and Excel were implemented by version 5, it might not take so long as you think.
Half the reason I haven't been on the site much is that I'm getting tired of all the cross-platform issues with VBA. For example, I can't test most of the KBs at home because they rely either on VB6 or ActiveX.
So now we're going to lose VBA from Mac Office. Might be the first time that MS has removed a feature. I'm sure they'll call it a bug fix. And they're trying to convince us to use AppleScript instead. What a joke. AppleScript has a lot of good uses, but dealing with scientific data in a spreadsheet is not one of them. Not to mention the absolute lack of decent documentation for AppleScript. At the moment you can also allegedly use RealBASIC within Excel for Mac - wonder if that's going to stay or not. Will they ever port VB.NET or VB 2005 or whatever they're calling it these days?
I'm starting to think like shades. Write up the code in a third party compiler, generate a stand alone executable that dumps results into Excel or whatever other spreadsheet I have by then. Without a scripting language built into Office that runs on both platforms, I no longer have a fundamental reason to stick with Office.
Know the feeling well.Quote:
Originally Posted by BlueCactus
From all that I have read, MS will not port anything remotely connected to VBA's replacement.Quote:
Will they ever port VB.NET or VB 2005 or whatever they're calling it these days?
I suspect that will be true across the board. Nisus Writer Express and Mellel can handle most Word documents. Mesa, Mariner Calc, and icExcel can provide most of the strict spreadsheet functionality and interchange of Excel. And of course, there is the OO port to Mac OS X, NeoOffice. I have it, used it briefly for word processing. Now I might consider its spreadsheet module.Quote:
Without a scripting language built into Office that runs on both platforms, I no longer have a fundamental reason to stick with Office.
Here are a couple of high end statistical and data analysis tools that might prove useful:
Aabel 2 from Gigawiz.
Quantrix for modeling purposes.
an update, from http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/p...cBU2008PR.mspx . It's from May 13th, 2008 . The relevant part to this thread:
"The Mac BU also announced it is bringing VBA-language support back to the next version of Office for Mac. Sharing information with customers as early as possible continues to be a priority for the Mac BU to allow customers to plan for their software needs.2 Although the Mac BU increased support in Office 2008 with alternate scripting tools such as Automator and AppleScript — and also worked with MacTech Magazine to create a reference guide, available at http://www.mactech.com/vba-transition-guide — the team recognizes that VBA-language support is important to a select group of customers who rely on sharing macros across platforms. The Mac BU is always working to meet customers’ needs and already is hard at work on the next version of Office for Mac."
One might ask the why they cut the language then, wouldn't they? A reversal of this magnitude in a program is substantial, and really does lend some question to the above.Quote:
Originally Posted by tpoynton
Agreed! I just hope that, when VBA is reintroduced on the Mac, it is more on-par with the windows VBA. However, somewhat limited VBA is better than none!
Errr... isn't it destined to be limited? I mean, it IS on the Mac, right?
:outtahere
That's right, if you're going to pick a fight, pick it with fanatics!Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Puls
It's more fun that way. :rotlaugh:Quote:
Originally Posted by xld
And speaking of fanatics, check this out
I love the real Mac vs PC ads. They make me laugh every time I see them, despite being a PC guy. It's a shame the Mac folks posting there don't have such a sense of humour. :)
Those commercials are hilarious. And yeah, I'm a PC guy, but the ingenuity and humour! :D
Having just come back from my latest traveling, and soon to depart next week, I just caught up with this thread.
This also raises the question about what MS will do with VBA, since it had been announced that Office 2007/2009 would be the last of VBA support on the Windows side. So, does that suggest VB.net? Or something else? And can any of that be ported to OS X?
BTW, I bought a Macbook Pro 15" in late February for my new job. What a gem! Gives me everything I need. Interestingly, I exchange files (most Word and Powerpoint, and occasionally Excel) frequently with those on the Windows side, and have never had a problem (using Office 2004, NeoOffice, and OpenOffice). I see no reason to "upgrade" to Office 2008.
Where was that announced? Every pronouncement that I have seen/heard from MS suggests that it will be around for many years yet, into the foreseeable future, and there are no definite plans (aspirations maybe) to drop it.Quote:
Originally Posted by shades
I will have to go back and get them, but a MacBU lead stated in a blog that since on the Windows side VBA was going away in the next release or two, it wasn't as bad for Mac users as it seemed.
I'd be curious to see that as well, Rich. I haven't heard anything to that effect either... :dunno
:(
Since this is a sticky, isn't it now worth mentioning that VBA is back in Office 2011 (and it's finally VBA6, although you still can't port code 100% between Win and Mac) and that XLM has always been present and correct in XL2008? ;)
good!