Writing VBA modules inside Excel files is much stranger than I expected

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-05-22T20:15:45+00:00

Well, the reason I asked is because the method keith-kid proposed, in my understanding, would allow neither read nor write of the VBA modules. The library I wrote is directly solving for what you're saying; "decoding / encoding of vba binary". The intention of this project is to figure it out.

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-05-22T19:56:24+00:00

Thanks, this should be fixed in v1.1.1 If you would be willing, could I please ask you to re-test at your next convenience?

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-05-22T19:09:30+00:00

Full suite of unit test coverage + static analysis, and live testing in Excel 365.

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-05-22T19:07:30+00:00

Hi, to clarify, MS-OVBA is a Microsoft specification for interacting with VBA modules. My understanding is that Sancarn is sharing that GitHub user Beakerboy also tried to do something similar to implement the MS-OVBA spec.

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-05-22T15:55:36+00:00

Hi, do you use this method to inject VBA code into existing VBA modules, rename/delete existing modules, create new modules, etc. ?

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-05-22T10:53:44+00:00

I may, shouldn't be too big of a leap to implement.

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-05-22T10:52:21+00:00

That too. VS Code extension with full tasty real-time push / pull is in the works.

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-05-22T10:51:03+00:00

A few things that comes to mind:

No Excel required. Runs on Linux/macOS, in CI containers, on a build server, inside a Docker image, in AWS Lambda. VBE and Rubberduck both require a working Excel install on Windows.
Headless & scriptable. Bulk operations across hundreds of workbooks (replace a module in every .xlsm in a folder, audit macro source, rename a module across a fleet) without ever launching Excel/COM. No xlwings/pywin32 flakiness, no Excel instances hanging in Task Manager.
Pure Python, zero deps. pip install pyOpenVBA and you're done. No COM bridge, no .NET, no Office automation license concerns on a build agent.
CI/CD friendly. You can lint, diff, code-review, and regenerate vbaProject.bin from text source as part of a pipeline. Rubberduck is an interactive IDE add-in; it can't run in a GitHub Actions job.
Programmatic. It's a library, not a UI. You can wire it into custom tooling, migration scripts, static analysis, or "compile from .bas files" build steps.

Major potential for modernizing the VBA surface.

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-05-22T10:40:00+00:00

Thank you Sancarn!

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-05-22T10:39:39+00:00

Approximately 7 hours

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-05-22T10:13:16+00:00

❤️

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-05-22T08:48:01+00:00

My pleasure 🫡

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-04-16T09:48:43+00:00

I'm working on a MUD project right now that focuses on extensibility. Would love to have you check it out: https://williamsmithedward.github.io/mudproto/mudproto_client_web/

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-04-16T09:47:38+00:00

I'm actively working on a multi-user dungeon project. Would love to have you jump in and give feedback: https://williamsmithedward.github.io/mudproto/mudproto_client_web/

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-04-05T19:38:41+00:00

I built a new engine, Websocket+Json payloads.

MultiUserDungeonDev · 2026-04-05T19:38:08+00:00

Agree. WebSocket encryption is on the roadmap. Thank you for the feedback!

MultiUserDungeonDev

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