sancarn

7 ms·

1.
by sancarn 2y ago
COM is still actively being used. Not sure why you think it's a problem with windows too. COM is and always has been quite revolutionary imo.
2.
by sancarn 2y ago
Not sure about other people but most of my apps I've made actually can't be made in Office Scripts... They are useless for my needs.
3.
by sancarn 2y ago
> good software that exists on other platforms You mean like AppleScript?
4.
by sancarn 2y ago
> They had announced Python support for Excel a while back and I wish it was better promoted as a viable VBA replacement But the existing implementation of Python means that it's not even close to a viable replacement lmao
5.
by sancarn 2y ago
Untested but something like this in VBA should suffice: Dim rng as range: set rng = Sheet1.UsedRange Dim rows as Long: rows = rng.rows.count Dim cols as long: cols = rng.columns.count Const SIZE as long = 500 For i = 2
6.
by sancarn 2y ago
These are the reasons I struggle to leave Windows too. Also the open API ecosystem is great. You can do pretty much everything with win32 libraries.
7.
by sancarn 3y ago
> At least I have yet to see one that is actually useful in the sense of a generic (or even a single-purpose-built) language Yeah as said, https://github.com/enso-org/enso seems to be a general purpose functional pr
8.
Ask HN: What are your thoughts on no-code tools like Microsoft's Power Automate?
3 points by sancarn 3y ago|3 comments
9.
by sancarn 3y ago
Certainly! If you're ever interested in seeing some awesome VBA stuff I have a big list here: https://github.com/sancarn/awesome-vba Lots of awesome stuff still in the VBA/VB6 community!
10.
by sancarn 3y ago
In our case (and in the article), we wanted to collaborate with IT, code along-side them in a technology of their choosing. However IT explicitely told us that they would NOT allow us to do any coding whatsoever. I, as an SME, am fully happ
11.
by sancarn 3y ago
Actually, every language in theory. At least any language which can use COM APIs can interact with PowerPoint. Ruby, Python, NodeJS, C, C++, C#, Java, Rust, ... Pretty much you name it and it can control powerpoint unless it is sandboxed.
12.
by sancarn 3y ago
I do RPA from VBA personally using IAccessiblity. See stdAcc ( https://github.com/sancarn/stdVBA/blob/master/src/stdAcc.cls ) and an example ( https://github.com/sancarn/stdVBA-exa
13.
by sancarn 3y ago
> they would have to essentially start from scratch if they wanted to do anything else like Python I do tend to disagree here. It really depends how invested they are with VBA. Many VBA skills are highly transferrable to Python and other
14.
by sancarn 3y ago
> so why are you complaining again? Because a job that would take 15 minutes turns into a 3 hour task. It might surprise you but some people actually enjoy their job and ticking off tasks :)
15.
by sancarn 3y ago
I have invested copious amounts of time into building VBA libraries ( https://github.com/sancarn/stdVBA ) and as much as I love vba there are some highly limiting actual problems with VBA ( https://sancarn.gith
16.
by sancarn 3y ago
Good if all you do is display a fancy UI for some data entry or visualisation, but OfficeJS can't do half the things VBA can do unfortunately. If only the addin system had FFI. I'd switch forever. Edit: Another big issue with Offi
17.
by sancarn 3y ago
Agree, Python implementation in Excel is trash. Not at all a competitor for VBA. Not yet anyway.
18.
by sancarn 3y ago
Microsoft recently released OfficeScripts, which are JS with a record macro button. Problem is, it's currently too limiting. Will be good in a few decades though if support isn't dropped.
19.
by sancarn 3y ago
Honestly, this is something I've been wanting to do for a while... Last I looked though, I couldn't find many good resources on how WASI (or the byte code) worked... And VBA being single threaded might make things difficult too...
20.
by sancarn 3y ago
This is already happening with IT maintained systems though... As specified in the article. So it really isn't an argument imo. IMO, companies should have a language of choice which is actively encouraged to be used by everyone for all
21.
by sancarn 3y ago
> We tried to work with them by giving them tools that plugged into Excel This is probably one of the best ideas out there. If companies built a bunch of Excel Addins to leverage business systems, that would be revolutionary for many bus
22.
by sancarn 3y ago
To be fair, as an SME, I do have documentation and an architectural overview. In my experience when I have provided these, they have been ignored anyway. I do not have access to git, because why would IT give me something useful? I think ma
23.
by sancarn 3y ago
VBScript is deprecated: https://nolongerset.com/vbscript-deprecation/ JScript is deprecated, and is likely to be removed at some point too... CMD is often blocked on many people's machines due to group policy. Pow
24.
by sancarn 3y ago
To be honest, not hard coding a connection string is quite tough too. It really isn't an easy problem to solve. And especially when every piece of software out there connects to data in different ways. The reality of the situation is w
25.
by sancarn 3y ago
I do agree, but they do have their limitations. Can't update sharepoint lists from Excel if you have more than 5000 records, can't update sharepoint lists generally unless you use VBA hacks (or use REST API and somehow get VBA to
26.
by sancarn 3y ago
VBA does have it's issues ( https://sancarn.github.io/vba-articles/issues-with-vba.html ) but it's far from the worst tool out there... E.G. PowerAutomate VB6 has a pretty big community, and https://
27.
by sancarn 3y ago
Is that really needed? You can use VBA to do all the heavy lifting. That's what we do here: https://github.com/sancarn/stdVBA/blob/master/src/stdLambda....
28.
by sancarn 3y ago
I have an open source compiler-interpreter for VBA here: https://github.com/sancarn/stdVBA/blob/master/src/stdLambda.... In case you were interested :P (I say compiler, it compiled to byte code, not
29.
Why do people still use VBA?(sancarn.github.io)
324 points by sancarn 3y ago|408 comments
30.
by sancarn 3y ago
When will Microsoft fix the root cause, and stop with this 'Attack Vector' BS. A running application should not, by default, have access to everything on disk (and every program running on the PC too). You will never annihalate ev

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