[kstenerud]

And rightly so.

Imagine for a moment that someone in accounting built a system in lisp to automate part of his job. As time goes on, he takes on more responsibility, which he writes more lisp for.

One day, he gets hit by a bus.

The lisp program he wrote is now an integral part of the running of the accounting department simply by accumulation and momentum, with tons of business logic baked in. Where do you look to find a replacement?

With VBA, there's a much higher chance of an accountant being familiar with the language, and a much smaller surface area for what they can do.

[mission_failed]

this already happens with Excel and access. Entire companies rely on a spreadsheet some wizard invented years ago and now no one knows how to change it, and it goes weird if multiple users try to access it at once so make sure you copy it locally first and change the file name so you can track the versions

[kstenerud]

Yes, it does. The difference is that with a known language (VBA in accounting, for example), you stand a hope in hell of untangling the mess or at least managing it so that the company doesn't fall over.

[sancarn]

This is already happening with IT maintained systems though... As specified in the article. So it really isn't an argument imo.

IMO, companies should have a language of choice which is actively encouraged to be used by everyone for all automation needs. Different departments build libraries to automate aspects of their jobs and other departments can use them if needed. I.E. it becomes yet another tool, just like Excel.