VBA Macro vs. VB.NET Add-In

[RhesusMinus]

Hi.

I'm going to make a new application for a customer. Is there any reason to use VBA any longer? Will VBA maybe disappear from Visio in a few years, just like it does for AutoCAD and other programs?

THL

[aledlund]

vba - microsoft rarely announces multi-year plans that they want to see published in public forums... There are other more relevant reasons for making the decision between vba and vb.net as a professional than a percieved longevity. Since the Visio team made the decision to add it to the latest version of the SDK and it has just been enhanced to work with x64 for all of the office products, I'd suggest you're safe for this year. How did you license what you created (wholly owned by the client or joint ownership of the properties)? Who made the decision on the language, you or the client? Obviously if it is in vb.net and jointly owned you would want to consider obfuscating it so that others could not reverse engineer your solution. I think vba is great for sandboxing and prototyping, but the production would be in vb.net.
IMO,
al

[kedas]

At the moment they say that they have no plans to stop VBA, they even added 64 bit support now.
Reasons: (they gave)
- Very big healthy user base.
- And an easy transition toward .Net (more new Visual Studio users this way)

But assuming they stop supporting VBA in 2016 or so.

1) How do you replace the functionality/practical-use of VBA with .Net code?
Now the right code is always present with the right document, how are you suppose to do that with add-ins that need to be installed?

2) Or will they replace VBA in the document with VB .Net in the document?
Seems like a logical thing to do since VB .Net Express is free anyway. Maybe in a transition you will be able to choose between a .Net or VBA document.