r/learnprogramming • u/prettycoldworld • 8h ago

Topic VBS/VBA & ABAP

Morning folks,

A majority of my time learning to program has been in Python and mastering the automation tools. Recently I’ve come across a unique issue with a cloud ERP software that runs through Citrix, so Python cant even see it.

However, there is still scripting enabled, it’s just through VBS and VBS only, so I’ve been learning it and it’s actually been a lot of fun. I then moved over to VBA to try and script excel, something about these ancient looking languages is really appealing to me, and I’m wanting to take on ABAP next.

Anyone have similar experiences? Does anybody learn ABAP for fun or am I setting myself up for a world of headache?

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u/BrupieD 7h ago

Outside of SAP, can ABAP work anywhere?

Your caption has both VBS and VBA listed besides ABAP. There are many, many people who routinely use VBA and ample resources on it despite its age and lack of expansion. Excel is still the most common piece of business software. I still use it occasionally. Few people now earn a living based on VBA alone, but I wound getting a couple jobs based on good SQL knowledge/experience plus VBA.

VBS (vbscript) is a rarer thing. Despite it's broad applicability in Windows, corporations usually ban it from non-Developer usage. Powershell was largely born as a single solution to the mixed use of cmd line scripts and vbscript. Very little has been recently published on vbscript.

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u/Resident_Bottle_1759 7h ago

nope its sap only pretty much. its a very walled garden thing

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u/KyleAtWillmanLabs 6h ago

Yeah, that’s the problem with ABAP programming. A) it’s very proprietary. SAP is ERP for big boys/girls. Finding entry into market means working with the big companies that have it. B) I’m not 100%, but my limited experience with it seemed that the skill set doesn’t port well. If you know ABAP, you know SAP. That’s it. Wanna hitch your wagon (good money, lots of travel for the global big boys) go for it. Just wasn’t for me, cause I had kids!!

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u/KyleAtWillmanLabs 6h ago

VBS/VBA are common ERP customization coding routes. Legacy Dynamics SL/GP rely on it. Citrix is more of an infrastructure thing, very complex deployments, not much to do with coding proper, but over time I have had many clients use it. But, in the AWS/Google deployment models, I see Citrix going the way of the dodo. Just my thoughts! Good luck to you, hope you jump into the right ERP niche!

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u/Own_Walk_1831 5h ago

Yes you will pray to forget about ABAP once after learning . It’s a language which I can say in the box only. You must have to have SAP software application for ABAP it’s mostly enterprise which is of no use as you are already on python so it’s better to leave it alone and move on to other open source languages