The Visual Basic Scripting Edition, known as VBScript for short, is a language which has been developed by the Microsoft Corporation. In all simplicity, VBScript is a slightly limited variation of the popular Visual Basic language and is used in the development of various client side scripts for web development. It has been included as a default in every single Windows operating system since the release of Windows 98. However there are some exceptions to this as the popular Windows CE operating system for handheld devices may potentially not have it as it is dependent upon the manufacturer’s configuration.
Originally used as far back as the 1970’s, the VBScript was initially developed for Windows system administrators who had needed something a little more powerful than the currently available batch systems. However unlike Visual Basic, this scripting language requires a host environment in order for it to be executed. Furthermore, thanks to the msscript.ocx, VBScript can also be embedded into other applications and programs.
By 1996 with the growing popularity of the joint venture between Netscape and Sun Microsystems which yielded the JavaScript language, Microsoft needed a way to take part of the market and through this they found the scripting language that was first realised back in the 1970’s and updated it for use on the web. Since that time, there were a number of changes to the core of the language which made use online a much simpler task and as a result it was able to keep neck to neck with Sun’s scripting language.
However, it would not be until version 5.5 that would allow sub-matches to be included into the regular expression classes of the VBScripting language. This was very important as it allowed the authors to basically capture text contained within a group. Before this advancement was added, this was only possible through a member of the ActiveX family.
As of currently, the development of VBScript has since been succeeded by that of the Windows PowerShell, however continued support for the language will continue for quite some time. Furthermore, Windows will also continue to support many other members of the ActiveX scripting family along with Jscript as they are still considered by many to be an indispensable tool irregardless of PowerShell’s capabilities.
Working similar to that of the popular JavaScript language, VBScript is employed in the Internet Explorer browser though the object embedding into an HTML file. It is important to keep in mind though that VBScript unlike JavaScipt is not cross-browser compatible as is many things associated with Windows and Internet Explorer. One can take a more recent example known as SilverLight which is a Microsoft creation as a means of competing against Adobe’s Flex. Just like with VBScipt, the other browsers will not support SilverLight, however all browsers including Internet Explorer will support flex to a certain extent. Keep it in mind though that with regards to the Internet Explorer browser, Microsoft has continuously fallen behind the pack in their development and conformity to standards.
One of the upsides to VBScript though is that as long as the website is hosted on a Windows powered server, the scripting language can also be used to complete server-side tasks as well as client side which has helped to make it more robust.
Original Authors: Nick
Edit Update Authors: M.A.Harris
Updated On: 09/02/2009
