VLA- and VLAX- Future Compatibility

[CodeDing]

Hello,

Can anyone please explain to me, in very simple terms, what the future of the "vla-" and "vlax-" type functions will become once VBA is no longer compatible with AutoCAD?

To elaborate, I understand that AutoCAD is heading toward the inevitable point that VBA will no longer be supported (who knows when that will be). When that happens, will the "vla-" and "vlax-" functions, used in AutoLISP, no longer work at that point? I have been trying to avoid using them in my lsp routines recently in fears that ultimately they could fail. Maybe they are completely separate and I just don't understand them thoroughly enough.

Any insight is appreciated 🙂

Best,

~DD

[_gile · Accepted solution]

Hi,

First, Autodesk has stopped questioning VBA support since Microsoft has finally decided to upgrade it to 64-bit systems.

In any case, globally, the vla- * functions provide access to the AutoCAD COM API and the vlax- * functions to the ActiveX set.
The COM API is the only one accessible with the AutoCAD VBA, but all other programming environments (Visual LISP (via the vla / vlax functions), .NET, ObjectARX / C ++) can also access it and AutoCAD uses it internally.

And ActiveX is still extensively used in the Microsoft world.
We can therefore think that the functions vla- * and vlax- * still have a certain future in front of them.

[CodeDing]

@_gile,

Thank you for keeping it simple. That was a useful explanation.

Best,

~DD

[Anonymous]

The vlisp functions were added to Autocad a lot of years ago now as an improvement to Lisp. Having started with version 1.4 of Autocad the question should be will plain lisp ever disappear. If you look at C# these days the push is .net.

Given the volume of code in the world to stop something would be a death knell for a software developer like Autodesk.

[_gile]

The thing to keep in mind is that the future of AutoLISP depends entirely on the goodwill of Autodesk while that of COM/ActiveX,  VBA , .NET depends first and foremost on the goodwill of Microsoft .
When, in 2012 Autodesk returns to the world of Apple, COM / ActiveX and .NET technologies can not be included in AutoCAD MAC (this partially explains the lack of many features in AutoCAD MAC versions).