Time has shown that scripting in a major application is always popular. Lotus 123 had it's macros, for instance, and with them you could make your spreadsheet do magic things. Microsoft took up this baton with aveangence in Word with WordBASIC and Excel macro language. Then Visual BASIC appeared and took off, and MS decided it would be good if they could "unify" all their macro languages behind this Visual BASIC.

The implementation has proved ... troublesome. Along the road to this unification, WordBASIC got so powerful that someone eventually wrote a virus in it (the famous "Concept" virus). At the time I was working with anti-virus software and it was very clear that Microsoft deliberately under-rated the threat of macro virii in favour of end-users being able to program their documents.

This attitude persists. Outlook was merely unlucky enough to be in the sights for VBA "unification" and thus email trojans came about. Microsoft persist with a perverse attitude towards security in their products, preferring to believe that all this automation makes for better applications. There are several stories about those championing security inside Microsoft finding it quite an uphill battle, and my impression of their response to security issues is of a grudging one.

Wade.

Also how much prodding they need to even consider addressing security. Even now, they still refuse to properly fix the Macro virus problem, even after many experts have told them and the world at large what they need to do. Of course, the problem Microsoft (think they) face is that such measures would make Windows (slightly) harder to use for both J Random User and J Corporate User. Which, to Microsoft, is simply unacceptable.

Wade.