Ask HN: Alternative to VBA macros?

Is there a viable alternative to using office/vba in the common office for tasks that are just beyond the capability of excel?

As a language VBA fulfils its requirements and is easy to write, but the whole macro system is hard to maintain (when the author moves on) and is pretty outdated. Is there an alternative? Some web framework (and all associated boilerplate) is going to be a bit beyond the average person who can make pretty productive VBA scripts for example.