The best way to *really* understand the fundamentals of COM

books:


	• Inside Com (Microsoft Programming Series) Dale Rogerson Microsoft Press, 1997 - 376 pages average customer review:based on 96 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The best COM introduction book for C++ programmers

This book is probably the best COM introduction book for C++ programmers. It walks you through the basics such as the IUnknown and the IDispatch interfaces, the different types of COM servers and the threading models. Everything is explained in clear writing style.

Technical, clear and succinct

I have been using COM for a while, then finally decided to dig further into its design paradigm and some implementation details. This book assumes knowledge of C++ and a lot of understanding of polymorphism. If you don't understand polymorphism, then it will be very hard to understand this book - but if you do, you will really enjoy reading it.

This is one of the best technical books I have ever read - not just on COM. It does NOT beat around the bush. This is one of those books that can be read cover to cover - concepts are built gradually and one layer upon the next. Of course, this means that you must pause to fully understand a chapter before proceeding to the next.

This book is a perfect balance - it neither goes too much into the code, nor does it hover at a high level. I think Dale Rogerson has a knack for writing!

On the con side - the jokes and anectodes can sometimes get to you :)

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Great book uses simple C++ coding style for presenting COM

This is an excellent COM starting book. The author progressively builds knowledge and uses a C++ style that does not require you to memorize by heart the function, macro or template presented in page X or in windows.h. This simple, no distractions approach facilitates focus.

I praise the COM reading list posted by another reviewer ("A reader"), the only book I would add to that list is "Inside Distributed COM" as this book covers the network aspects of COM like no other.

Finally: Do not understimate COM's longevity... It will be with us for a long time and is stable so your investment will payoff.

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The best way to *really* understand the fundamentals of COM

This book begins by assuming the reader knows little more than basic C++. In the second chapter it introduces some simple C++ classes about which the reader will think to herself, "okay, this is simple". From there it builds: adding incremental changes to the original C++ code, gradually making it more useful, explaining each change as it goes. By the end of the book, the original example has grown up into a full fledged COM component, written completely from scratch. No wizards, no templates. At this point the reader will not only be able to recognize the elements of a COM component, but more importantly, she will understand *why* COM works the way it does. The mystery surrounding the ATL and Visual Studio wizards evaporates, and the developer can see them for what they really are: simple shortcuts.

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An excellent book on COM

This is much more than a COM book. The book spends a lot of time in the first half talking about the more general concept of interfaces, which is more of a software design topic. Then he shows how to implement those interfaces using C++ abstract classes and gives a very good discussion of inheritence, polymorphism, and virtual function tables. Everything is done in pure C++ so you can see what is going on. No wizards or macros to hide the details. The diagrams were very helpful.

Even if you choose to not use the COM architecture for your software the discussion of interfaces will help you write software of much higher quality. Seeing how the interfaces are implemented and the discussion of inheritence and virtual function tables gave me a much better understanding of the C++ language.

The key to understanding COM is understanding interfaces and this book does a very good job explaining them. Eventually when the author gets into the Microsoft specific COM library you can see how those chapters build on the earlier chapters. You can see how a program can evolve from a set of inflexible C++ classes, to some compile-time flexible C++ classes that use interfaces, to run-time flexible components using DLLs, and finally a full blown COM component.

Near the end of the book it is not as thorough with the examples but that is because the topics presented there are too large to fit in a single chapter. The first 8 chapters are worth the price of the book.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

COM (Component Object Model) forms the foundation of OLE and ActiveX as well as Microsoft's vision for componentized, distributed computing. Inside COM explains COM from the ground up, beginning with a lucid overview of what COM is and what benefits it offers programmers, then delving into the details of its actual operation. While Rogerson provides code samples in C++, the book isn't about C++ nor is it overwhelmed with program listings. Rogerson masterfully starts with a high-level view that doesn't get swamped in unnecessary detail then later fills in the gaps and addresses advanced topics. He offers just the right approach for programmers who might be intimidated by COM's apparent complexity.

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