Comments on: Code/Data Separation

By: adam

adam — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 12:39:31 +0000

Hi Max,
While you make a good point, and there are clearly fuzzy boundaries, there are also places where the answer is reasonably clear. In those places, it is helpful to take advantage of the clarity. This frees up time and energy to worry about those fuzzy spots.

By: Maximillian Dornseif

Maximillian Dornseif — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 07:44:49 +0000

What is the difference between 'Code' and 'Data'? See my thoughts on the issue at http://md.hudora.de/blog/guids/54/93/6470713426167024.html I really would love to see some discussion on what you actually mean with code & data.

By: Kevin Boske

Kevin Boske — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 12:21:03 +0000

Adam, In Office “12″ we address this problem with our new file formats for Word, PowerPoint and Excel by explicitly disallowing VBA in our default formats (“macro-free”) and only allowing VBA in our “macro-enabled” alternative formats. The files are differentiated based on thier extension and content type. For example, a macro-free Excel Workbook will carry the extension “.xlsx”, whereas a macro-enabled workbook’s extension is “.xlsm”. If a macro-free file is found to have a VBA project during the load process, the load will fail before opening the VBA “Part”, end of story. You don’t have to trust the “disable macros”, the application simply won’t open the file. Take a look at Brian Jone’s blog entry for more: http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/archive/2005/07/12/438262.aspx

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 17:49:19 +0000

They’re open to suggestions. I said, “here’s the problem as I see it,” they said “here’s the problem as we see it, how can we solve it?”

By: beth

beth — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 17:46:28 +0000

Well, you say it’s been years since you had that conversation with the macro security person, I think the time is over-ripe…what do THEY think, or what are they prepared to do?