Microsoft's Component Object Model is one of the most important concepts in software development today. Developer's Workshop to COM and ATL 3.0 provides an in-depth treatment of COM and shows how to adopt a component framework, namely ATL, to help lessen the burden of repetitive code. Every chapter contains integrated lab assignments that give you numerous opportunities to build COM clients and servers using raw C++ and IDL, as well as the Active Template Library.
The book is divided into five sections, each focusing on a particular aspect of COM and ATL development. The book begins with a review of object-oriented and interface-based programming techniques, then moves into the core aspects of COM, including a full examination of language independence and location transparency. The author illustrates the numerous CASE tools used during ATL development and discusses apartments, COM exceptions, object identity, and component housing, in addition to various advanced concepts such as COM categories and tear-off interfaces. The fourth section examines a number of "COM patterns" such as enumerators, collections, scriptable objects, and callback interfaces. The book closes with an investigation of using ATL as a windowing framework and wraps up with the development of a full-blown animated ActiveX control using ATL.
The companion CD contains full source code for all the labs, along with the official COM and DCOM white papers.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
Must Have:
This book is the perfect example of a good "Computer" book: It teaches what it needs to teach in a way you understand.
It covers all the important stuf like BSTRs, Smart Pointers, DCOM, TLBs, IDLs and other buzz-like acronyms.
I used it as an only reference for learning COM and I was doing complex COM projects within weeks. Andrew Troelsen is 'the man'! Best regards,
This book is GREAT!..:
Apart from the fact that so many customers gave 5 stars to this book, there's another indicator of its value: it looks like nobody wants to resell it after they are done reading it. I, for one, intend to keep it for reference... I've been programming in C# for a few years, and now I needed to learn COM. This book was the best tech manual I've ever read. My recommendation is: if you need to learn COM, do not waste your money on any other book until you've read this one.
outstanding:
I NEVER write reviews; however Mr. Troelsen for this effort has earned it. He has written by far one of the best written tech books on C programming I've ever read, and for COM/ATL this book makes writing interfaces for VB both understandable and accessible. Coverage and background is sufficient, and equally important for those who don't do this every day for a living, the depth in setting up projects in Visual Studio is also there so one unfamiliar with technical setup issues involved in setting up an ATL... more info
Classic COM and ATL book:
Describe low level COM and then ATL internals and interfaces which can let reader easily understand such complex mechanism. Though the book is a little bit old, it can still be served as a good reference.
