On “Hating VBScript”
Back in the mists of time (July 2000) I ranted about VBScript. VBScript is one of a bewildering number of languages in Microsoft's BASIC family. VBScript is specifically different from Visual Basic 6 (or prior versions), Access Basic (defunct) and VBA (Visual Basic for Applications). There will be no VBScript.NET, but that's OK since VB.NET is scripty enough. For more on VBScript's particular brand of weirdness, I refer you to the blog of Eric Lippert
VBScript and JScript (a JavaScript clone) are the default choices for doing ASP development. While any language that provides the right COM interface can be used with ASP (Perl and Python can, for instance), they don't come with IIS, and 3rd party languages tend to have quirks with the specific COM objects you are likely to use under ASP (ADO in specific.)
Of the two, JScript has the benefit of being a nicer language, while VBScript interops better with COM objects. One example: VBScript arrays are COM arrays, while JScript arrays are JScript objects.
The rant came about because I had been using VBScript daily for my job for the past two years. (And would go on to use it for at least one more.) This long exposure on a moderately sized web project really let me figure out how much I didn't like using it.
The site the rant was originally hosted on had good "Google Juice" (that is, tended to turn up high in Google searches), and the rant got around the web a bit. It still gets multiple hits a day from people looking for actual VBScript help. If I had been thinking, I would have used my search logs to write micro-HOW-TOs. Then I'd be known as someone helpful, instead of just a big complainer.
But that time has passed. The rant itself is still valid, as far as it goes, because VBScript is a frozen language. The future (or rather, the "now") of Microsoft Web development is ASP.NET, with C# and VB.NET.
The Flangy Guide to Hating VBScript
As a historical curiousity, I present: The Flangy Guide to Hating VBScript.
Contact Information
- Email:
