Channel 9 - Discussions by haathi http://mschnlnine.vo.llnwd.net/d1/Dev/App_Themes/C9/images/feedimage.png Channel 9 - Discussions by haathi http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/haathi/Discussions Channel 9 keeps you up to date with the latest news and behind the scenes info from Microsoft that developers love to keep up with. From LINQ to SilverLight – Watch videos and hear about all the cool technologies coming and the people behind them. http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/haathi/Discussions en Sat, 25 May 2013 21:00:05 GMT Sat, 25 May 2013 21:00:05 GMT Rev9 0 0 0 Coffeehouse - Anyone still use VBA?
blowdart wrote:


You'll find a lot of banks using it. A lot of traders. The amount of custom excel spreadsheets used for trades and predictions is scary


Partly True. I have worked with Traders and Analysts also. I find it quite impressive the way they start with a relatively simple spreadsheet  and then improve it over time to settle down with fairly complicated analytics templates in Excel / VBA that they use to carry out sophisticated trading strategies.

There isn't anything "scary". One reason they love Excel / VBA is because most Market Data Vendors such as Bloomberg and Reuters provide simple-to-implement DDE and VB Functions that the Traders can incorporate into their spreadsheets to analyze volume, liquidity etc of their portfolios fairly quickly and accurately. Also, by design, Excel can be set to recalculate formulas and cell values automatically when something changes. This is especially useful if they link to live prices in say, a benchmark column.

The problem arises when the data has to be shared, and you end up with multiple analytics spreadsheets on shared network drive and they are not sure which one is the latest.

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/116869-Anyone-still-use-VBA/cc14ca92fab8415f978a9deb00eaf741#cc14ca92fab8415f978a9deb00eaf741 Wed, 18 Oct 2006 18:02:49 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/116869-Anyone-still-use-VBA/cc14ca92fab8415f978a9deb00eaf741#cc14ca92fab8415f978a9deb00eaf741 haathi 15 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/haathi/Discussions/RSS Coffeehouse - Users Are Fools?
HBEaker wrote:
Quote somewhat taken out of context. 

Lets not forget why our industry exists.  We don't exist solely to entertain ourselves (that's just a fortunate side-effect ).  We're here to serve those "foolish" users, and providing them a secure environment in which to do their job is part of our job we've been pretty rotten at so far. 


True. And if all the users un-"foolish"ed themselves, that would put most of the network administrators, help desk "analysts" and security "specialists" out of jobs ! We must respect our users instead of taking shots at them...Cool

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/239174-Users-Are-Fools/08f374ad02f94703a3ba9dec001eaa88#08f374ad02f94703a3ba9dec001eaa88 Sat, 14 Oct 2006 19:13:34 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/239174-Users-Are-Fools/08f374ad02f94703a3ba9dec001eaa88#08f374ad02f94703a3ba9dec001eaa88 haathi 11 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/haathi/Discussions/RSS Coffeehouse - My wifes birthday - gift ideas? How about the new Red I-Pod ?

You will be getting her a new fashion accessory, and at the same time contributing to a larger cause.

She's gotta love you for that !

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/239714-My-wifes-birthday-gift-ideas/6c5b4052e30e4ed18a7e9dec001f6cf7#6c5b4052e30e4ed18a7e9dec001f6cf7 Sat, 14 Oct 2006 19:03:38 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/239714-My-wifes-birthday-gift-ideas/6c5b4052e30e4ed18a7e9dec001f6cf7#6c5b4052e30e4ed18a7e9dec001f6cf7 haathi 26 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/haathi/Discussions/RSS Tech Off - Big Ball of Mud: How do you avoid it ?
cheong wrote:
I managed to silently replace subsystem by subsystem at a time, and one and a half years later the whole system has been straighten out. Smiley



My experience with the Big Ball of Mud has been similar to this. Working in the Financial Services Industry, I have encountered numerous Excel / VBA Spreadsheets and  Bloomberg VBA / API code that has been put together hap hazardly by analysts and traders in an effort to achieve a near term goal.

I dealt with this by introducing small changes in small modules / classes one by one.

Here is an example.

Some of the trading analytics was in spreadsheets (.xls ) saved on network folders. These spreadsheets had hard-wired links to other .xls spreadsheets. Besides that, there was no control over the changes made to these spreadsheets.

When I had to make a few code changes to these analytics and deploy them properly,
  • the first thing I did was to convert all the spreadsheets to templates (.xlt).
  • the second thing I did was to create an add-in with menu, that would internally instantiate the templates, so that users don't have direct access to the templates and hence don't make unauthorised changes and bring the setup down.
  • the third thing I did was to store configuration information for location of the templates in an xml file, and added functionality within the add-in to browse and set the location for this xml file. I used MSXML to parse the xml file and load it into a hash table style "Scripting.Dictionary" object in memory.
  • finally, I wrote a .vbs script for deployment of the new analytics, which would take an environment as parameter (ex DEV or QA or PROD) and according set the xml file within the add-in before copying it over to the user's local add-ins folder.
Ofcouse, this is a very simplistic example. But I have taken this approach and used it in more complex application and have achieved similar results. Also, the move from mud to magic takes quite a bit of time and includes some resistance from some of the end users as they want their "fixes" immediately, so don't expect 'Instant Gratification' in your efforts to change this Big Smile

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/TechOff/237806-Big-Ball-of-Mud-How-do-you-avoid-it-/7985f88d36a649958d7f9dea014a337d#7985f88d36a649958d7f9dea014a337d Sat, 14 Oct 2006 18:43:46 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/TechOff/237806-Big-Ball-of-Mud-How-do-you-avoid-it-/7985f88d36a649958d7f9dea014a337d#7985f88d36a649958d7f9dea014a337d haathi 6 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/haathi/Discussions/RSS