XLM Resources? (XL4/Excel 4)

[Dan Williams]

I may be taking over an old XLM/Excel 4 macro application for a year
or two until it is converted (by someone else, to a non-Excel
platform). It is HUGE (~50 Meg of code and tables).

I figure I should ask what resources exist for this left-behind
language. Through these newsgroups, I have already learned of and
acquired the following:
____________________________

The book--I managed to get a used copy via Amazon.com:

Chris Kinata and Charles W. Kyd
"Complete Guide to Microsoft Excel Macros"
Microsoft press 1993
ISBN 1-55615-526-3
____________________________

The help files, downloaded from Microsoft:

From: Dave Peterson
Subject: Re: Does anyone use XLM?
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.excel.programming
Date: 2001-03-26 14:58:05 PST

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=12917
macrofun.exe - 697 Kb

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?releaseid=12916
Macro97.exe - 513 Kb
____________________________

I have also read a newsgroup discussion of pausing and resuming XLM
macros in post-XLM versions of Excel:

From: John Green
Subject: Re: Help needed by old retired programmer
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.excel.programming
Date: 2000-09-16 20:53:42 PST

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&newwindow=1&selm=ufaeYpFIAHA.277@cppssbbsa04
____________________________

Plus, I wrote a VBA macro that parses and indents complex XLM
statements so I can read them, e.g. taking =IF(F55=TRUE,
ALERT(IF(Memos_Added =1, "THE 1st MEMO NAME", "THE 2nd MEMO NAME")&"
ALREADY EXISTS. "&IF(Memos_Added=1, "RE-ENTER THE NAMES.", "RE-ENTER
2nd NAME."), 2), GOTO(E61))...

....and pasting it into Word as this:


IF F55=TRUE Then
ALERT(
IF Memos_Added =1 Then
"THE 1st MEMO NAME"
Else
"THE 2nd MEMO NAME"
End If
&
" ALREADY EXISTS. "
&
IF Memos_Added=1 Then
"RE-ENTER THE NAMES."
Else
"RE-ENTER 2nd NAME."
End If
,2)
Else
GOTO(E61)
End If
____________________________


Even if this application turns out to be too much for me and they have
to hire someone to maintain it, I may be still involved in documenting
how it works.

Is that about it for resources? I'm wondering if there there's some
sort of "User Group of the Damned" out there. (Or a "User Group of
the Elite" -- diehards who stuck with XLM rather than switching to
VBA?)

Dan Williams

 

[Jim Rech]

I don't believe there is a group anywhere dedicated solely to XL4 macros.
Your best bet may well be this NG as there are a few of us still around that
did a lot of XL4 macro work.

The help file you have is the main resource you need plus a lot of patience
as you struggle with this arcane language. I remember joking with my fellow
developers here, when we converted to Excel from Lotus 10 year ago or more,
how we could spend an entire morning just getting one line of XL4 code to do
what we wanted. Those were the bad old days<g>.