No. The VBE hasn't been changed AFAICT. Since VBA is a dead language
walking, I doubt it will be updated on either the PC or Mac. There
certainly hasn't been a great uproar that indicates the Mac market cares
about programming, other than Applescript (which is fantastically
improved in XL04). I've probably worn out my welcome in Redmond with my
emphasis on making MacOffice VBA more compatible with WinOffice (though
they're still wonderfully friendly, and listen politely).
Well, they did that to me for years when I asked about improving AppleScript
(actually they weren't so polite - they ignored me for a long time.) Then
look what happened. They listened.
However, since MS is now figuring out what will happen with Office and
.Net, now is the time to send feedback to MacBU (Help/Feedback) on what
should happen with on the Mac side. It appears that they would *like*
everyone to switch to Applescript and RealBasic. If you think it's
important that MacOffice programmability has access to essentially the
same tools as WinOffice, let MacBU know.
My guess is that they have to wait for two things before deciding what to
do:
1) Does Apple plan to allow integration with .NET, and to enable it. It's
just possible they do, particularly with their big move into Server
territory. Maybe we'll all find out with Mac OS 10.4. If they do, maybe
MacBU will find a way to make VB.NET feasible in MacOffice.
2) Does Office Windows plan to integrate with Longhorn (the next version of
Windows, due "sometime") in such a way that would either make it incredibly
complex for MacBU to undo and ignore all that when porting to Mac, and/or
pointless to port if that stuff is removed. I'd guess that would not be the
next version of WinOffice but the one after that. MacBU might have to wait a
long time before the picture becomes clear and even longer before they could
get code to start porting and modifying, So it will probably be a fairly
lengthy wait.
But they do seem to be keen on cross-platform compatibility, so I would urge
everyone who's interested in this to keep requesting it for development too.
I guess a lot will depend on whether there's enough available to be
compatible with, after Longhorn. But in the meantime you should let them
know how many people out there want this. I do know that when I was pushing
fixing AppleScript (for Word - where it was a disaster; Excel was always
useable) they kept telling me that "there's no indication anybody uses it".
My answer was "Of course nobody uses it - it doesn't work. But the
publishing industry - the big Mac clients - all use AppleScript to automate
their workflow, and they've all had to stop using Word for that reason."
That did seem to have an effect at the time. So I'd keep at it, and add your
voices to JE's.
--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP Entourage
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.
