In defense of VBA

September 28, 2009 26 Comments

You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

So the news that ESRI ArcGIS 9.4 will be the last version that includes VBA support has really stirred up some emotions.  So sum up a couple comments in that post, “I can’t believe they are dropping VBA, I use it all the time”.  Many of us have moved beyond VBA to other languages, but there seems to be a large percentage of ESRI developers that still rely on VBA to customize ArcGIS Desktop.  geoGraphika has even written a blog post outlining 7 reasons why ESRI shouldn’t drop VBA.

Now before VBA devs get all worried that they have no time to prepare for the change.  Take a look at the time between when ArcGIS 9.3 arrived and when 9.4 will come.  ArcGIS 9.3 shipped June 26, 2008 and ArcGIS 9.4 earliest possible release date would be right before the ESRI UC which is July 12, 2010.  That is almost 2 years between releases.  Lets assume 9.5 takes that long to arrive (let alone the mythical 10.x release) it will be summer 2012.  That is a lifetime to get ready to migrate off of VBA.  Plus if VBA is mission critical, you can stick on ArcGIS 9.4.

Hey, don’t worry about VBA being depreciated. The future’s so bright, you gotta wear shades.

Filed under GIS Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

ESRI DevSummit – The Gift that Keeps Giving

March 31, 2009 17 Comments

ArcGIS Code Challenge Winners Announced

Looks like Alper Dincer and Matthew Petre are the big winners.  The mobile code challenge results are posted as well.  I suppose they announce this after the DevSummit so the winners don’t have to buy everyone beer.

VBA and VB6 with ArcGIS: What’s the Story?

First off I bet you didn’t even know there was an ArcObjects blog.  Second, please move off of VBA or VB6.  Last year I said the writing was on the wall, this year the wall is falling down upon you.  Python, Java or .NET;  take your pick and enjoy.  There is nothing you can’t do with those choices and in fact gives you much more freedom.

Silverlight API

Vish is taking it for a spin and he’s reporting back on its use.  Bookmark or subscribe to Vish.

Virtual Earth and ESRI ArcGIS

This seems to be getting a ton of play.  One thing to remember folks, yes VE is free with ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Explorer 900, but you need a valid license.  If you download AGX 900 and don’t have a valid ArcGIS Desktop license, you won’t be seeing VE imagery.  Yea that sucks for the world, but every ESRI user should buy Jack a drink at the UC in San Diego for paying for this.

Filed under GIS Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,