Customer Reviews

COM/DCOM Unleashed (Unleashed Series)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book is so completely useless that I can't imagine how anybody could publish it. It's very typical of the Unleashed series... all code and chunks of worthless, Incorrigible code. I'm still giving it the 1 star cause it's got some useful information on MSMQ, MTS etc. Ok, so I'm being a stick-in-the-mud, but let me assure you, there are far better resources on COM all over. I can suggest the following literature / sequence for learning and starting to get a grip on COM:

1) Understanding ActiveX and OLE - David Chappel MS-Press [ This is a remarkable work and highly recommended, but you might think of skipping it if you're really short of time ] 2) Essential COM - Don BOX Addison Wesley [ This book is ESSENTIAL. Don't even think of skipping this one or the next one ] 3) Effective COM - Don BOX Addison Wesley [ Good supplement to the one above ] 4) Inside OLE2 - Dave Brockshmeidt (can't spell his name) [ Nothing beats the technical excellence and in-depth content in this book ]

There's a lot of stuff on the Web too... eg. develop.com's COM tutorial. I haven't heard much about it, but coming from Don Box's company, it HAS to be good. There's a nice set of tutorial based samples (itutsamp.exe) that you can download from MSDN. There's a lot of COM happening in the Microsoft Journal, so be sure to catch up on it again at the Microsoft website.

May the force be with you!

Anyone rating this book above a one is either a friend of the author or has shares in the publisher. The books consists of random chapters with no common thread or purpose.

From a basic introduction to multi-tier applications we jump into advanced COM techniques (where were the basic ones?) with no details of their use or benefit.

The book requires a good deal of COM/DCOM knowledge to make sense of it and offers little insight or explanation. For example, the different threading types are coded with little description in the text and there is no discussion as to their use or application.

I picked the book up for $7 dollars and I feel its barely worth that, never mind $31.

This book provides a strong foundation for developers looking to master Microsoft component technologies. The authors have a clear sense of purpose and thorough understanding of the concepts. The book does an excellent job of taking the reader from theory to practice with lots of good code examples. You'll find coverage here of everything needed to successfully created distributed applications for the Windows DNA world.

Scot Hillier Author "MTS Programming with Visual Basic"

The book was written so that everyone can understand what the new Microsoft Technologies are and how they can help facilitate your business. Each one of the new "enabling" technologies are covered in detail and provide great in-depth examples on when/where to use them.

I keep coming back to this book and finding more and more information on working with the various parts of COM. I definitely recommend COM/DCOM Unleashed to anybody using COM.

This book is just GREAT! I was struggling at work, but this book kept me going. It gives tips and helpful advice!

I found this book , very usefull becuase of describing a lot of subjects in the environment of Com/Dcom . The book is written in simple english and has a lot of good examples.

Micro$oft is famous for its ability to push out new development technologies. The reason behind this planned obsolesence is obvious, every time they come out with something new people will have to open their wallets to "keep up."

DCOM is just another disposable technology. As such, it was a complete failure; one that the marketing folks at M$ have tried to bury as quickly as possible under an avalanche of .NET hype.

DCOM was hard to port because, like COM, it is based on a binary standard (i.e. a standard that changes when you leave x86 and go to 64-bit RISC). Not only that, but DCOM doesn't support distributed transactions. Worst of all, DCOM is a very, very complicated technology to use. Three strikes... YOU'RE OUT!

The half-wit MBAs at Micro$oft realized their mistake and have abandoned DCOM, leaving it forever in the backwaters where the only record of its sorry existence are stupid books like this.

I have no idea why someone would want to buy this book. Folks, this is a dead technology. It is no more. It is an ex-techology. If you buy this book, you are lying to yourself. This book will sit an gather dust, unless you can find more productive uses for it...like burning it to stay warm.

The sad fact of the "Unleashed" series is that the publisher thought that by releasing huge, 1000-page books, that they would get more shelf space and attract attention. It's all a marketing ploy. You could easily condense everything down to 200 pages. So hunker down, grab a marshmallow, and throw this monster book on the campfire.