A first look by MacRumors at MS Office 2008 for Mac gave a surprise: No VBA for Excel.
This is quite important. It's important because the business community has come to rely on MS's VBA for macros and other scripted actions. To be sure, Microsoft is evidently going to use Apple Script more, but there is no translation from VBA to Apple Script, at least not that I know of.
The result: a very costly and hobbled application of dubious merit, too, using a file format that is racing backward even as it tries t keep up with ODF.
In contrast, OOo uses the ODF and also uses OOo Basic, which works in much the same way as VBA. There is even an effort underway to translate VBA to OOo Basic, and for many macros, I have been told, it is successful.
The point: Any business, large or small, or even individual, with many macros already written (or that intends to write them), ought to think twice if not thrice before spending absurd amounts of money on an application that removes such a tool. And they ought to look at OOo which is not only free, but does have built-in macro tool that does, to a degree, translate from VBA. (BTW, there is a project furthering the interoperability between VBA and OOo Basic.)
This is quite important. It's important because the business community has come to rely on MS's VBA for macros and other scripted actions. To be sure, Microsoft is evidently going to use Apple Script more, but there is no translation from VBA to Apple Script, at least not that I know of.
The result: a very costly and hobbled application of dubious merit, too, using a file format that is racing backward even as it tries t keep up with ODF.
In contrast, OOo uses the ODF and also uses OOo Basic, which works in much the same way as VBA. There is even an effort underway to translate VBA to OOo Basic, and for many macros, I have been told, it is successful.
The point: Any business, large or small, or even individual, with many macros already written (or that intends to write them), ought to think twice if not thrice before spending absurd amounts of money on an application that removes such a tool. And they ought to look at OOo which is not only free, but does have built-in macro tool that does, to a degree, translate from VBA. (BTW, there is a project furthering the interoperability between VBA and OOo Basic.)
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