![]() ![]() In an attempt to move people away from the obsolete VBA technology, Microsoft also created Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO). And with JavaScript replacing BASIC as the language of the common man, creating a new "VBA for the Web" doesn't seem like a tenable idea. ![]() Based on 90's era COM technology, there is no realistic way to host it inside a web app. But with web-based word processors becoming more popular, VBA is a technological dead end. The latest version, 7.1, was released in 2013 and it has had a 64-bit version since 2010. Though in decline, Visual Basic for Applications is still with us. And most virus scanners refused to all documents that contained macros to be shared via email. ![]() It was still as powerful as ever, but turning off the safeties so that you could actually use it proved challenging. In response, Microsoft locked down the VBA programming interface. Hidden inside Word documents, they were hard for virus scanners to detect. So called "macro viruses" were causing havoc. The public perception of macros saw a significant decline just after the turn of the century. Soon many companies were offering VBA support including ArcGIS, AutoCAD, SolidWorks, CorelDraw, and even WordPerfect. Originally meant to work with all MS Office products, they realized that they could license the technology. When Microsoft created Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), a language with (limited) OOP capabilities and matching IDE, to replace WordBASIC it didn't just create another embedded component. Then in the late 90's something interesting happened. The arms race was on, and with the business user demanding more and more features the updates were frequent. Beside Word, there was WordStar and the then front-runner WordPerfect, each with its own macro programming language. First introduced in 1989, WordBASIC allowed even minimally trained typists to write computer programs that simplified their daily tasks.ĭuring this era competition was stiff. For nearly 30 years, macros have been a key selling point for Microsoft Word. ![]()
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