Re: [Fsfe-uk] Newham: Richard Steel speaks (Techworld)

[MJ Ray]

On 2004-01-25 21:02:20 +0000 Alex Hudson <address@hidden> wrote:

> On Sun, 2004-01-25 at 20:16, MJ Ray wrote:
> > Some things might be doable with portable macros.
>
> What portable macros? I don't know of any such solution. VBA [...]

Some software has portable macros and some Excel macros used to be 
readable by other spreadsheets. Maybe Microsoft have done away with 
them to help cause lock-in but, as I said, this is not really where 
I'm working now (thank the fates). I agree that VBA isn't really a 
macro language.

I think some Office APIs are accessible to other programs through more 
normal interfaces anyway. There again, we probably return to whether 
using APIs directly in an unportable way is a saving or deferral of a 
large cost. The software engineering ideas of cohesion and coupling 
that I was taught at uni seem relevant, but no-one seems to talk about 
them any more.

> Office comes #5 in CW's top contract skills
> by demand, and #8 in top perm skills (#9 is VB, and I would say that 
> the
> set of "Office AND VB" is probably a significant size).

I don't doubt you, but it would make me happier to have a proper 
reference for claims like this.

--
MJR/slef     My Opinion Only and possibly not of any group I know.
Please http://remember.to/edit_messages on lists to be sure I read
http://mjr.towers.org.uk/ gopher://g.towers.org.uk/ address@hidden
 Creative copyleft computing services via http://www.ttllp.co.uk/