So… in response to a question about macros… Are Macros the same as programming Excel?
Hiran de Silva reflects on a very common explanation…
one given by Claire Squibb…
that a macro is something you record in Excel…
and VBA is what happens when you go and modify it…
and he acknowledges…
that this is fair…
it’s popular…
it’s what most people would say…
but then he pauses…
and suggests…
that this explanation…
doesn’t really go far enough…
so instead…
he offers an illustration…
and like many of his explanations…
it starts…
not with Excel…
but with something very ordinary…
a journey to work…
he asks us to imagine…
someone driving to work every morning…
same route…
same time…
same sequence of turns…
and then he introduces an idea…
what if…
the car could record everything…
every move…
every decision…
every stop…
so the driver presses record…
leaves home…
turns left at the end of the road…
checks for traffic…
stops at lights…
waits at crossings…
turns into side streets…
parks…
and the entire journey…
is captured…
then the next day…
the driver decides…
not to drive at all…
just to press play…
and read the newspaper…
and what follows…
is predictable…
but also…
slightly uncomfortable…
because everything goes wrong…
the car turns…
when it shouldn’t…
it ignores traffic…
it ignores pedestrians…
it stops…
when it shouldn’t…
it continues…
when it must not…
and eventually…
it drives into a situation…
that makes no sense at all…
and Hiran asks…
a very simple question…
is that…
a viable way…
to drive a car…
then he shifts…
to something real…
a clip from Tomorrow’s World…
presented by Michael Wood…
a 1970s navigation system…
based on cassette tapes…
it gives instructions…
based on distance travelled…
and for its time…
it’s clever…
but again…
it assumes…
the world does not change…
no diversions…
no unexpected events…
and in the demonstration…
it quite literally…
leads the driver…
to the edge of a jetty…
which even at the time…
was…
amusing…
then he contrasts that…
with what we have today…
modern satellite navigation…
systems that…
monitor traffic…
detect disruptions…
recalculate routes…
systems that respond…
to what is happening…
right now…
and then…
he goes one step further…
self-driving cars…
not following instructions…
but observing…
evaluating…
deciding…
checking for cars…
waiting for pedestrians…
reading signals…
responding continuously…
and at this point…
he brings it back…
to Excel…
and asks…
again…
can you see the difference…
because what most people describe…
as the difference between macros and VBA…
is not really the difference at all…
recording a macro…
is like recording the journey…
and even modifying it…
is still…
editing the tape…
it does not change…
the nature of what’s happening…
programming…
on the other hand…
is something else entirely…
it is…
conditions…
rules…
evaluation…
decision-making…
it is the difference between…
replaying actions…
and replicating thinking…
and then…
as he often does…
he adds another layer…
music…
playing Chopin…
notes fixed…
sequence defined…
versus improvisation…
listening…
responding…
adapting…
not following…
but participating…
and finally…
he points to something…
that almost no one mentions…
that macro recording…
only captures…
what you can physically do…
but the most powerful parts of Excel…
are not physical…
they exist…
outside the sheet…
and they can only be accessed…
through programming…
so in the end…
his conclusion is simple…
a recorded macro…
replays yesterday…
programming…
handles today…
and once you see that…
you realise…
these are not two versions…
of the same thing…
they are…
fundamentally different worlds…
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