Fw: [Tutor] Greetings

dominic.fox dominic.fox" <dominic.fox@ntlworld.com
Fri, 10 May 2002 22:31:00 +0100


Sorry, this was meant for the list - apologies to Alexandre, who will now
have received it twice...

> Alexandre wrote:
> >
> > I don't know VB, but I programmed a bit in VBA (to automate stuff in MS
> > Office, etc.). IMO, VBA is no match for Python. Python feels much more
> > flexible and powerful. In Python, I find myself attempting tricks I
> > wouldn't have considered in VBA (and often, they work :-)
>
> If you work in an office full of people doing routine and highly
automatable
> tasks using MS Office software, then VB/A is your friend and, possibly,
> theirs (job security might be an issue...). MS Excel is particularly
> friendly about exposing its functionality for automation; you can write
some
> reasonably useful applications in Excel VBA without immense amounts of
pain,
> provided your head doesn't keep bumping on the ceiling of the VB
> reality-tunnel. In _Code Complete_, which I've also been reading recently,
> Steve McConnell supplies a good line about coding *into* a language,
rather
> than *in* a language. VB's all right if it's not the only thing you know,
> although if you do know anything else it's only a matter of time before
you
> start resenting some of the shackles VB places on you.
>
> I gather there's a Python module which provides support for interfacing
with
> COM (MS's Component Object Model, which is what lets you write some code
in
> Word VBA to send a message in Outlook attaching a spreadsheet you build in
> Excel out of some data you retrieved from Access), however. If I can
> persuade COM objects to do the bidding of Python modules, then there will
be
> much rejoicing...
>
> Dominic
>