Writing Word Macros, Second Edition

Visual C++

Despite the significant strides that Visual Basic has taken, it is not, in general, the preferred language for creating complex standalone Windows applications. That role belongs to Microsoft’s Visual C++.

Actually, this is a good thing. Microsoft must guard against trying to make any single language the solution for too many diverse programming needs. Such an effort can only be counterproductive. By increasing the power of VB (and VBA) in order to handle more diverse and sophisticated application programming, the language becomes more complex and difficult to learn and use. This will result in the language being used by fewer people.

Visual C++ is a marriage between the C++ programming language and the Windows graphical environment. Visual C++ is not nearly as user-friendly as Visual Basic. This is due in part to the nature of the underlying language (C is less friendly than BASIC), in part to the fact that C++ is a fully object-oriented language and therefore naturally more complicated, and in part to the fact that Visual C++ is designed to control the Windows environment at a more fundamental level than Visual Basic. For instance, Visual Basic does not provide ways to create a text box whose text can use more than one color, set the tabs in a list box, or change the color of the caption in a command button, and so on. Simply put, when programming in VB (or VBA), you must sacrifice power in some directions in favor of power in other directions and a simpler programming ...