How to fix this early binding failure?

Question

I'm trying to strip HTML from a string and found two methods in this SO thread.

The code for the first answer works but uses late binding.

With CreateObject("htmlfile")
    .Open
    .write "<p>foo <i>bar</i> <u class='farp'>argle </zzzz> hello </p>"
    .Close
    MsgBox "text=" & .body.outerText
End With

The code for the alternative answer, which uses early binding, gives a compile error ("Function or interface marked as restricted, or the function uses an Automation type not supported in Visual Basic").

Public Function StripHtml(inputHtml As String) As String
    With New HTMLDocument
        .Open
        'Following line gives compile error
        .write "<p>foo <i>bar</i> <u class='farp'>argle </zzzz> hello </p>"
        .Close
       StripHtml = .body.outerText
    End With
End Function

My questions:

1. Is the alternative answer simply not the equivalent?
2. Is there an early binding equivalent to the first answer, which works?
3. Why does CreateObject("htmlfile") work at all when I cannot find that object type in the object browser?

Answer 1

these two are equivalent, i think

Option Explicit

Sub Macro1()

    Dim aaa As Object
    Set aaa = CreateObject("htmlfile")
    aaa.Open
    aaa.write "<p>foo <i>bar</i> <u class='farp'>argle </zzzz> hello </p>"
    aaa.Close
    Debug.Print "text=" & aaa.body.outerText

' ---------------------------------------------------

    Dim bbb As New HTMLDocument
    bbb.body.innerHTML = "<p>foo <i>bar</i> <u class='farp'>argle </zzzz> hello </p>"
    Debug.Print "text=" & bbb.body.outerText

End Sub

your question about CreateObject("htmlfile") should read "why does With CreateObject("htmlfile") work..."

the with command creates an temporary, unnamed object (it is similar to the lambda function that is used in some languages)

if you need to examine it, then use a set command to create a variable that references it