Re: beginner's Excel script (round2)
Re: beginner's Excel script (round2)
- Subject: Re: beginner's Excel script (round2)
- From: Paul Berkowitz <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 19:14:52 -0800
On 3/27/04 6:48 PM, "Walter Ian Kaye" <email@hidden> wrote:
>
> But AppleScript IS a native language of Excel.
>
>
Not the last time I checked... which was 5.0, actually... and AS was
>
*nothing* but a "VBA puppeteer"; there was nothing "native" about it.
>
Are you saying the current dictionary bears no resemblance to the 5.0
>
dictionary? Are you saying the current dictionary is *not* a 1:1 VBA
>
mapping like 5.0's was? Are you saying it's a true AppleScript object
>
model, not a VBA model?
No. It's not an ideal AppleScript model, in that there are too many commands
and not enough objects, but it doesn't actually break any syntax rules. It's
not the only one like that around, either. It would certainly be better if
it had a more typically AppleScript model, sure. And I'm not disagreeing
that it's based on the VBA model either - except that commands are general
and not Methods belonging to to the objects (hard to say which language is
being more object-oriented here). The fact that it seems to plug into the
VBA model is probably why it works, in fact, as opposed to Word's AS model
which _looks_ more kosher but crashes and screws up all the time. I'm just
saying that if you know AppleScript syntax and don't know VBA syntax,
there's no good reason to learn a new language when AppleScript will do the
same thing. (In fact, in the present versions of AS and VBA, there may be
some more obscure commands in VBA that AS can't do, but that doesn't apply
to any of the spreadsheet properties and commands that started this
conversation.) The chief problem with the AppleScript version is that it
isn't properly documented - the dictionary doesn't explain anything - so you
end up having to check the equivalent keywords in the VB Editor's Help
(which is very good). But if you're more comfortable with AppleScript, you
can bring it back with you.
There are gaps in the AS implementation. But that doesn't necessarily mean
you need to learn a new language. It could mean that the gaps need to be
filled.
--
Paul Berkowitz
[demime 0.98b removed an attachment of type application/pkcs7-signature which had a name of smime.p7s]
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