issue-#92 Office Automation

[ReneK]

The current version of MS Office supported by the Blackbox framework is 9.0 (which is Office 2000, IIRC). We should include Office Versions up until 2007.

Of course, with DevComInterfaceGen, it is possible to make your own interfaces, but:

1) The framework which is delivered by us should be current state of software, not 10 years old.
2) If I generate the interface for Excel12, the resulting source code has compile errors.

I am currently working on a solution.

Also, there's a general office automation problem: If Excel raises an error (which it does quite often), then BB raises a trap, instead of receiving an error that then can be handled by the programmer.

I'm looking into this, too.

[Ivan Denisov]

At the same time, which interfaces can be removed? Maybe we can remove files like CtlExcel5 ? They take much space, I think that nobody are using them.

[ReneK]

I agree that we do not need to support all old versions.

[Ivan Denisov]

Rene, do you have any prototype for testing?

[ReneK]

Not yet. Will take until the 2nd week of June until I can provide.

[Ivan Denisov]

At the same time, which interfaces can be removed? Maybe we can remove files like CtlExcel5 ? They take much space, I think that nobody are using them.

I want to discuss this again. Who are using the old office automation files? If nobody, we should remove them. They take much space in distribution and have no sense for possible users. All Ctl subsystem can be separated to an component. What do everybody think about this?

[DGDanforth]

At the same time, which interfaces can be removed? Maybe we can remove files like CtlExcel5 ? They take much space, I think that nobody are using them.

I want to discuss this again. Who are using the old office automation files? If nobody, we should remove them. They take much space in distribution and have no sense for possible users. All Ctl subsystem can be separated to an component. What do everybody think about this?

Is it possible to list all of the Office Automation files?

It is not clear to me what is and is not an automation file.

-Doug

[Ivan Denisov]

Is it possible to list all of the Office Automation files?

CtlAccess8
CtlAccess9
CtlADODB
CtlC
CtlDAO35
CtlDAO36
CtlExcel5
CtlExcel8
CtlExcel9
CtlGraph8
CtlGraph9
CtlMSForms
CtlOffice
CtlOfficeBinder
CtlOutlook8
CtlOutlook9
CtlPowerPoint8
CtlPowerPoint9
CtlStdType
CtlT
CtlVBIDE
CtlWord8
CtlWord9

[DGDanforth]

Ivan,
Thank you.
I do not use any of those files.
-Doug

[Josef Templ]

I use one of them.
And there may be other users who use one of them.
The world is much larger than the center.
Please do not touch this.
There is no problem that is solved with removing any of these files.
If there is no problem, there is no need for any change.
If there is no need for any change, we should not change anything.

- Josef