what is the future for excel vba? it seems like excel is on its third or fourth version of trying to get VSTO as the mainstream solution here. Is there a clear strategy? is vba going to die anytime soon?
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A:
I can tell you that it's still supported in Office 2010. The VBA library itself actually got an for the first time since VB6. Office 2010 has introduced support for 64 bit features and a few other small things.
One item of potential concern is that some advanced VBA applications make use of 32 bit ActiveX Controls that may not ever have 64 bit versions released. But for most day to day business applications you should be fairly OK.
Office is very important to Microsoft, so they aren't going to do anything to hurt their business on purpose. I would imagine that whatever they do there will be a roadmap to help people transition to the "new" way.
As for how long it will be until such transitions take place, consider that many business major businesses are still using XP/Office 2003. And we know VBA is supported in Office 2010. If that pattern holds for Office 2010, then in 2017 there will still be major companies on Windows7/Office 2010.
So all in all I wouldn't loose too much sleep over it. Just make sure you hook into Microsoft's developer programs so you can keep an eye on it, and make sure your skills don't go stale.
Oorang
2010-01-16 19:22:56
+1. Microsoft have a clear goal - eliminate VBA - but IMHO they don't have any working strategy that will bring it about. Office is worth billions of dollars in profit every year and major customers have invested heavily in VBA.
MarkJ
2010-01-27 11:16:28