Visual Basic Script is a scripting language that is upwardly compatible with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). VBA currently ships with Microsoft Office and Visual Basic. Microsoft Internet Explorer includes a COM server that implements a VBScript engine. Unlike VBA, you can add VBScript to your existing applications without having to pay licensing or royalty charges.

Aside from language syntax and semantics, a key difference between VBScript and JScript is that VBScript has a complete server-side role and JScript does not. For example, VBScript can be integrated with the ISAPI component of Microsoft’s Internet Information Server (IIS) to run a variety of back-end applications.

For a complete description of VBScript, we suggest the article, Visual Basic Script, by Keith Pleas in the Spring 1996 issue of Microsoft Interactive Developer magazine (MIND). In addition, Microsoft has a wealth of information about VBScript at the following URL: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/t0aew7h6(VS.85).aspx.