Editing VBScript (section)

==History==

VBScript began as part of the Microsoft Windows Script Technologies, launched in 1996. This technology (which also included [[JScript]]) was initially targeted at web developers. During a period of just over two years, VBScript advanced from version 1.0 to 2.0, and over that time it gained support from Windows [[system administrator]]s seeking an automation tool more powerful than the [[batch file|batch language]] first developed in the early 1980s.<ref>''[[86-DOS]]''</ref> On August 1, 1996, [[Internet Explorer]] was released with features that included VBScript.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.johnsmiley.com/visualbasic/vbhistory.htm|title=The History of Visual Basic|website=www.johnsmiley.com}}</ref> 

In version 5.0, the functionality of VBScript was increased with new features including [[regular expression]]s; [[class (computer science)|classes]]; the ''With'' statement;<ref>[http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zw39ybk8.aspx ''Visual Basic Scripting Edition: With Statement''], on MSDN</ref> the ''Eval'', ''Execute'', and ''ExecuteGlobal'' functions to evaluate and execute script commands built during the execution of another script; a function-pointer system via GetRef,<ref>[http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ekabbe10.aspx ''GetRef Function''], on MSDN</ref> and [[Distributed Component Object Model|Distributed COM]] (DCOM) support.

In version 5.5, ''SubMatches''<ref>[http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/y27d2s18.aspx ''Visual Basic Scripting Edition: SubMatches Collection''], on MSDN</ref> were added to the ''regular expression'' class in VBScript, to finally allow script authors to capture the text within the expression's groups. That capability had already been available in JScript.

With the advent of the [[.NET Framework]], the scripting team decided to implement future support for VBScript within [[ASP.NET]] for web development,<ref>[http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms974588.aspx#scripting0714_topic1 ''What About VBScript?''], within the article ''Introducing JScript .NET'' by Andrew Clinick of Microsoft Corporation, in Scripting Clinic on MSDN (July 14, 2000)</ref> and therefore no new versions of the VBScript engine would be developed. It would henceforth be supported by Microsoft's ''Sustaining Engineering Team'', who are responsible for bug fixes and security enhancements. For Windows system administrators, Microsoft suggests migrating to [[Windows PowerShell]], as VBScript is deprecated and will eventually be removed from Windows.