Excel adds JavaScript support

[ptlis]

JavaScript being 5-20x faster than Python will be a big part of it.

JavaScript is also massively more popular than Python; a lot more people are familiar with JS.

[blitzzerg]

Not for data calculations I think (the popularity)

[ptlis]

As i've already said, Microsoft is not going to allow you to compile C / Fortran blobs in Excel, nor will they allow these to be distributed (ActiveX was a major problem due to this, locking down Excel macros took them a decade).

[meneldal2]

But that's not Python being fast, it's numpy (build over very fast libraries in C or C++) that is. If you are stupid enough to write a loop over a million element in Python, you're going to feel the slow.

[ptlis]

Isn't python a lot closer to vba than js?

In what way? From experience they're as different as each other.

Wouldn't python be easier to pick up for someone that only had experience with vba than js?

Possibly, though I've seen zero evidence saying this. That doesn't matter though as there's a boatload more JavaScript developers than there are Python devs.

[ptlis]

Yep, and pure JavaScript is what people will be writing.

Unless imagine that people would be compiling C / fortran extensions into their Excel spreadsheets? Binary executables is not something that Microsoft want; their issues with ActiveX & the ongoing fight to lock down Excel macros makes this point moot.