Definition of VBScript

VBScript is the short form for Visual Basic Scripting Edition. This language, which was developed by Microsoft, is an Active Scripting language modelled on VB.

The language is developed with a fast interpreter and is a lightweight language. VBScript can be used in a large number of Microsoft environments.

History

VBScript was initially a component of the Microsoft Windows Script Technologies, which was introduced in the year 1996. This technology initially aimed at attracting and addressing web developers and made use of JScript. Within a period of around 2 years, VBScript version 1.0 moved to version 2.0, which included a variety of enhancements.

Within the same time period it also gained support from the system administrators of Windows who were in need of an automation tool that was stronger than the batch tool that was introduced at the beginning of 1980s.

On 6th of March, 1988, Alan Cooper presented Bill Gates with his prototype shell that had the potential to add widgets in a dynamic manner. This was accompanied by the adoption of “Quick Basic” by Microsoft on 20th of March, 1991. This facilitated the quick and easy creation of apps for Windows through the use of a GUI. The language further gained importance, when internet explorer was launched on 1st of August, 1996, and consisted of features that included VBScript.

The functionality of this language was further with the introduction of version 5.0. This version consisted of a set of new features, such as: regular expressions; the With statement; classes; the ExecuteGlobal, Execute, and Eval functions; support for Distributed COM (DCOM), and a function pointer system through the GetRef.

Version 5.5, on the other hand, came with an added feature of SubMatches. These were included in the regular expression class in the VBScript. Tis feature helped the authors of script in capturing the text that was present with the groups of expressions.

After the introduction of the .NET framework, the decision of extending future support for VBScript in ASP.NET for the purpose of web development was taken by the scripting team. As a result, it was decided that new versions of this language will not be introduced anymore.

The maintenance of the language was allocated to the Sustaining Engineering Team of Microsoft. This team was mainly responsible for the enhancement of security and elimination of bugs.

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