Office 15 Development To Go JavaScript, HTML5 For Extensibility

mikejuk writes "Programmers have had to put up with Microsoft dithering over Office development for a long while. The macro language VBA has been on its way out ever since .NET was introduced and yet it is still the only macro language available. Now it looks as if Microsoft plan to put JavaScript and HTML5 into Office 15. And how do we know this? By reading job ads to discover what projects Microsoft is hiring for."

Comments

Dance monkeys, dance

[derGoldstein]

It's Microsoft Fashion time again. Did you use program in C++? That made sense, since it was cross-platforms and has an independent standards committee. Well, if you want to play in Microsoft land, you have to dance by Microsoft's tune: back in 2002 it was .Net. It was the holy grail -- they stuffed that thing everywhere. People started using it, and liked it too -- there are many .Net communities. In Visual Studio 2010, there's no intellisense for C++ anymore. Did you have large projects in C++? Well granpa, you should have migrated them to C# by now. We're not going to help you with your geriatric C++ programs.

But now Microsoft isn't feeling "hip" with the young kids anymore. All of these web applications make Microsoft feel two-thousand-and-late. Oh, what is Microsoft to do... Oh! Of course! We have money! and a huge developer base! The kids like JavaScript? We'll give 'em so much JavaScript they'll pass out!

We'll cram it everywhere, not just the browser. Native Windows software? JavaScript. Embedded scripting? JavaScript. Does JavaScript have any standard way to interface with the file system? Does it have any way to do networking, or databases? No? Well, that's not a big deal, we'll just make up our own!

Man, if you program software for Windows, you'd better start eating and breathing JavaScript. They've kicked C++ out, and .Net is next. It's the new Microsoft tune -- so start dancing!