Re:No-code in manufacturing: automation without programming
by sokoloff on Thursday October 07, 2021 @05:52PM
(#28792582)
I’d wager that 99% of all excel workbooks in the world contain no VBA.
Excel’s market power is in what you can do in the formulas, interactive exploration, and incremental progress not in the (fairly awful dev-experience) VBA.
Re:No-code in manufacturing: automation without programming
by perl4ever on Thursday October 07, 2021 @06:04PM
(#28792682)
That's true, but the point is, they haven't created anything that bridges the two worlds. They are just there, in coexistence.
Well, then again, I also think you are also falling into the trap of underestimating the amount of VBA code, and businesses built on it, because of your cultural disdain for it.
Re:No-code in manufacturing: automation without programming
by sokoloff on Thursday October 07, 2021 @06:12PM
(#28792762)
I don’t have any disdain for Excel or VBA. It’s clearly hugely useful, successful, and valuable.
I’ve written some VBA; the DX is terrible, but I have massive respect for what they’ve accomplished and I readily reach for it when it’s the right tool. I wrote some powershell for a manufacturing site a few weeks ago. Didn’t enjoy doing it, but it was the right horse for that course.
Nothing in particular has been solved by Excel, it's just that the languages that are built in are disdained by software engineers so people assume there's something special about them. It's cultural. You can write a Lisp in VBA if you want.
Microsoft's attempt at low/no code appears to be Power Automate, and it's awful (imo).