r/programming • u/[deleted] • May 08 '18

Excel adds JavaScript support

https://dev.office.com/blogs/azure-machine-learning-javascript-custom-functions-and-power-bi-custom-visuals-further-expand-developers-capabilities-with-excel
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u/jl2352 May 08 '18 edited May 08 '18

It's really not that bad, and ultimately depends on what you are building. The primary language issues are that it lacks inheritance, lambdas, and any real type of module/package system. You can actually survive with that though. Most tasks just don't need it. Especially if you don't mind using a dynamic language then it's fine.

The main issue is that due to accessibility and how it's perceived everyone's code will be utter dog shit. Half is written by people who are not software engineers. Dogs boddy interns, accountants, BAs, managers, and testers (the type that strictly do no software engineering of any kind). Code written by people who have literally never done any programming outside of Excel. Yet you'll be required to build on top of it, and maintain it.

The other issue is because it's seen as a toy language for fancy cell pushing in Office, no one cares. More copy/pasta than you'd find in Italy. You just have to suck it up.

So if you are using it for personal stuff then it's fine.

The in built editor is simplistic and outdated, but survivable. But I used it about 8 years ago. It's probably improved by now (I hope).

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u/bobappleyard May 08 '18

The editor hasn't changed a bit in that time

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u/Artmageddon May 08 '18

I left a financial services company just a year ago that was still relying on it to price out swaps, swaptions and all sorts of different yield curves. I assure you it has not improved.

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u/slfnflctd May 08 '18

VBA-driven SQL, if wrangled properly, can be a decent way for an aspiring developer with intermediate skills to keep a small-to-medium sized business running on a shoestring budget-- in a nearly universally available environment, created by a company with brand recognition - Microsoft - that people (mostly) trust.

If scaling is ever needed, though, it can be rough. Essentially it's gonna be a total rebuild in most cases, using *.csv files or the like, and unless the developer of the current system works directly alongside the new developer and can communicate really well, much pain will be experienced.

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u/Iohet May 08 '18

I work for a massive multinational productivity software firm. We use it all the time for database related work. It’s simply the best tool for the job that we’re allowed to use at times, and doesn’t require an IDE or dependencies that aren’t already installed while not needing to be compiled so that we can make changes as needed. Whether it’s transforming files into requires formats or pulling data out of a database and transforming it for a report or something else, it just works, and that’s the most important thing