January 3, 2026
When Excel cosplays as JavaScript
Hacking VBA to support native scripting runtime with no COM dependencies
Excel gets a glow-up: VBA learns modern tricks, office warriors cheer
TLDR: ASF upgrades old Excel macros with modern scripting—no extra installs—so locked-down workplaces can do more with what they already have. Commenters are hyped, with a side debate over Access users storing code in tables, balancing newfound power with “please don’t break prod” energy.
Excel just hit the gym. A new project called Advanced Scripting Framework (ASF) turns the dusty macros in Microsoft Office into a surprisingly modern script playground — no extra add-ons needed. Translation: your old Excel can suddenly do slick, JavaScript-style moves like “map,” “filter,” and “reduce,” handle objects and lists gracefully, and even plug safely into your existing formulas.
And the crowd? Loud. One commenter saluted the real heroes: folks in ultra-secure rooms where only Excel is allowed, calling ASF a lifeline for getting stuff done without installing anything. Another stirred the pot with a spicy reminder to Microsoft Access diehards: yes, you can store code in tables and feed it to an evaluator — which triggered some nervous giggles about “maybe don’t let interns near that.” Meanwhile, the vibe-check from the rest of the thread was pure hype: this looks useful, fast to adopt, and frankly a way to make VBA less of a pain.
Drama watch: light but delicious. The Access tip sparked side-eye about security and maintainability, while the Excel-only crowd meme’d that “Excel is the only programming language allowed by national security.” ASF’s creators say it’s tested, debuggable, and built for real work. The community’s verdict: old-school Office just got interesting — and a little dangerous, in a fun way.
Key Points
- •ASF is an embeddable scripting engine written in plain VBA, adding modern scripting features without COM dependencies.
- •It includes a production-proven compiler and VM using an AST-first design with human-inspectable, map-based ASTs.
- •Features cover first-class functions, anonymous closures, arrays/objects, control flow, method chaining, and helpers like map/filter/reduce.
- •VBExpressions integration allows safe passthrough to existing VBA user-defined functions via the @(...) syntax.
- •A comprehensive test suite (Rubberduck) validates semantics and runtime behavior; integration is simplified with a compact wrapper and module set.