Evil is in the Eye of the Beholder

I don’t make it a practice to respond to other web sites here. In fact, this is a first! But a recent article titled Oh you evil Visual Basic, how I love and hate thee by ZDNet’s David Berlind made me decide to change my policy … at least this once. After all, this site is About Visual Basic and so is David’s article

The key factor that made me decide to post this response is a fundamental logical error of failing to look at the problem from more than just one point of view. Then there’s a bit of ‘future think’ that needs to be integrated into a more complete discussion as well. Let me explain.

Without rehashing the entire article, let me summarize - in my own words - what I think were David’s main points.

1 – VBA macros in combination with a quick and convenient Access database solved a major problem he was having with his email.

2 – But he wanted to use a BlackBerry PDA offsite to process email too! And his BlackBerry can only be programmed in Java! This makes it impossible to use any of the VBA code he developed on his BlackBerry PDA.

3 – This is leading him to consider other options, like third party solutions. And he found some! But he’s concerned that adding more software into a solution that already has two incompatible architectures will only lead to more problems.

4 – So he’s rethinking his whole approach and considering whether an all-Windows and VB solution might work better, but he’s not sure whether he wants to get even more deeply into (David’s term) “Microsoft’s walled garden”.

OK … Let me get this straight. VB is so productive and easy to use that you just can’t live without it. But because another manufacturer made the choice of implementing an incompatible technology and you bought into it, somehow this is part of a clever plot to keep you from enjoying the the technology fruits outside Microsoft’s walled garden.

My problem with David’s reasoning is that a wall can be looked at from two points of view. A wall can either be something designed to keep you in, or to keep you out. There is, unquestionably, a wall between Java and VB. But who put it there and who keeps it there is a matter that honest people can disagree about. I’d say that neither Sun or Microsoft can be given any credit for doing much to tear down this particular wall. Things don’t look too bleak, however. The wall is coming down anyway.

Here’s where the “future think” comes in. To a large degree, David’s problems are a result of trying to serve the meal before it is cooked. BlackBerry represents something that BEA’s Adam Bosworth has called, “disruptive innovation” – making it possible to do something you just couldn't do before. But that doesn’t mean this innovation is going to stay disruptive. As David discovered when he looked for third party solutions, they’re on the way. And the secret is to pick that mix of solutions that will have robust, staying power combined with the lowest cost and the highest level of function. (We don't ask for much!)

Outlook is currently enabled with VBA and is, unfortunately, not one of the Office 2003 applications (Word and Excel are the only two) currently supported by Microsoft’s .NET technology, Visual Studio Tools for Microsoft Office. But it’s coming! And it’s possible to implement “build your own” solutions using COM based Add-in’s for Outlook to populate an XML database rather than Access for a web based solution. (See Microsoft’s MSDN Article, Building Outlook 2002 Add-ins with Visual Basic .NET). As long ago as last year, BEA demonstrated their WebLogic solution using XML Web Services and a BlackBerry device to show how Message Oriented Middleware (MOM) can solve problems just like David’s.

So, how do you pick a solution that has the highest “future think” quotient. In this space a few days ago, I noted that although neither Sun or Microsoft is moving mountains to break down the wall between Java and .NET, Microsoft has at least recognized the value of ‘standardizing’ .NET while Sun never has been willing to take that step. Like Apple of old, Sun seems to continue to believe that they can own the technology and sell it too. At the end of his article, I was pleased to see that David also recognized that the real battleground was the OS … not the development tool: “I'm coming to grips with the reality that my initial reliance on Windows, which led to Microsoft Office, which led to Visual Basic, is now leading me further into Microsoft's walled garden.” On that, we can agree.

So if you believe that Microsoft will fall on their face with Longhorn, the next version of Windows, by all means choose Java. Otherwise, starting learning how to implement XML web services with your Office applications.

But the most interesting comment that David made took me way back to the early 1990’s. He said, “Of the two options - Java and .Net - the former has more appeal. While the latter allows me to get the job done.”

I can remember a lot of people saying the same thing about OS/2 and Windows!