We've mentioned before Microsoft's controversial decision to end support for Visual Basic (VBA) scripting in the forthcoming Office 2008 and replace it with AppleScript. While normally moving to an Apple standard technology over a closed Microsoft solution is a good thing, this move will have major repercussions with respect to cross-platform compatibility. Once this is done many scripts and macros written for the Windows versions of MS Office will no longer work on the Mac version. There is a work-around, rewriting the macros and scripts in AppleScript, though that will take some doing. Fortunately, MacTech magazine has produced a VBA to Applescript Transition Guide to help with the process. Originally the Guide was only included with the April issue of MacTech Magazine, but they have now seen the light and are offering it free on their website. You can still purchase a PDF or paper copy as well. Check it out over at MacTech.[via The Apple Blog]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-03-2007 @ 3:26PM
fanguad said...
I feel obliged to point out that your "Apple standard technology" is also a closed Apple solution in exactly the same way that VBA is Microsoft standard technology.
I understand that there's a bias here, but understand that Applescript is just as closed as VBA.
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5-04-2007 @ 3:57PM
has said...
"I understand that there's a bias here, but understand that Applescript is just as closed as VBA."
AppleScript is closed, but the underlying Apple Event Manager and Open Scripting Architecture interfaces are accessible from any language that cares to support them. Open-source Apple event bridges already exist for several languages, including Perl, Python, Ruby and ObjC. Third-party OSA language components are also available/under development for a number of languages, although none of them provide a 100% replacement for AppleScript just yet. (Oblig. disclaimer: I'm the developer of several of these projects; see my sig for links.)
So while there is a degree of platform lock-in, since scripts that use Apple events to control Office won't run on Windows without significant modification, within the Mac platform things are actually pretty free.
has
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http://appscript.sourceforge.net
http://rb-appscript.rubyforge.org
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5-04-2007 @ 4:15PM
SimonW said...
Just a note for international customers who may want to purchase the printed version. It is not $19.99 plus shipping and handling as shown on the web site but rather $44.95 plus shipping and handling. I've asked MacTech for clarification as to why international customers are charged twice as much for the same product (I can understand the shipping being more but not the actual printed book) and I'll resort to printing out the on-line version.
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