Reply to post: Re: "it is going to be happening"

Re: "it is going to be happening"

What Mr Monet Said

And I will explain why:

I work on a large, complex, CRUD app with bits that interface to banks and govt (regulations...) that has (at least core database) been around since mid-80s

$client_ish_facing_consultant (me) talks to $client and is told "we need to do $clever_thing "

when? $real_soon.

$client_ish_facing_consultant talks to dev team "we need to do $clever_thing " by $real_soon.

Is told no chance because no resource|these are not clear reqs|complicated|have you thought of(*)|fine can do by $some_later_date|fine can do by $real_soon

I have come across fine can do by $real_soon less than 10% of the time.

Easy to have a pop at dev team. Not intended to be. Just that they are committed well into the future and do not have the budget to keep staff 'free' for the contingency that $clever_thing by $real_soon job actually happens.

... so I make it happen and sometimes this is Excel / VBA.

Excel may be v.v.v. slow and quite evil but (like javascript) is ubiquitous and generally does not change much.

Now it is done there is not appetite to re-implement in core - client wont pay and there is a big list of $other_stuff_to_do and dev team have limited resource....

(* thought of the fact that what you want breaks the core... ...and the day will come but not yet)

So the use of Excel/VBA has tended to grow over time and indeed I will go further and say that this will carry on growing until something else that fills the same need becomes widespread.