Does VBscript have a future as an automated test scripting language?

[Shannel]

Any opinions welcome.

Thanks,
Shannel

[Alin]

Hi Shannel,

VBScript is mainly used in paid automation tools and I think it will continue to exist because these tools are developed by large names in the industry; these companies can offer support for this language and these automation tools are have a good popularity. Also, companies that are using these products for testing activities have invested a lot of money in these frameworks, so it will not be easy to stop using them.

I think its popularity will decrease because testers prefer using OOP languages. Recently, HP introduced the support for Selenium, which will increase the usage of OOP and decrease the usage of VBScript.

Regards,
Alin

[Kasper]

Hi Shannel,

I complete contrast to Alin my answer is: No, there is no future for VBScript.
Even Microsoft does not support it anymore (apart from security fixes). Microsoft’s latest browser Edge can’t work VBScript anymore.
The large names in the industry will just have to move to either .NET or another scripting language.
My 2 cents.

Cheers,
Kasper

[Laurent]

Hi Shannel,
I fully agree with Kasper and for quite the same reasons ;). I would add that good agile practices include that automation could be done by developers, and I do not know any developer that likes to write a single line of vbs 😉

So even HP is migrating to selenium driver (see LeanFT) and you can use .Net or even Java to write your script… So even if as mention Alin, some have to maitian existing vbs scripts, I would said that it is the same future than Cobol (still used but only for legacy – and vbs automation is not at the same stage than Cobol legacy code…)

IMHO we should automate with a langage closed to the developer, so they can develop or maintain the automation scripts (when build failed in continuous integration for instance)!
So prefer js, groovy, python or java as a automation language.

Regards
Laurent

[Abhijeet]

What is the latest update on this topic? ~1 year 9 months since the question was raised.. what does the trend indicate? Is VBScript still set to go?

Same topic gives a different view on vbforums – http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?858323-The-future-of-VBScript

I do agree that a  java based automation language would be more “complete” and definitely more stable. But as far as “power” goes I am not fully sure especially if we are talking about automation on the Windows OS (see comment by mwildam on the vbforum thread above)

 

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