Customer Reviews

The COM and COM+ Programming Primer

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was asked to give a 2-hour overview of COM+ to the development staff at my company. I had just started learning and developing with COM+ a few weeks previously. I scoured the web for info, and other than the MS documentation, this book was the only one that contributed to my preparation. Extremely well-written and clear, but very very in depth. Aimed at C++ programmers (I am a VB person), but I still found it more helpful than any of the VB COM books I've looked at. Once I understood the internals of COM+, programming to the COM+ API was a snap. I finally really understand why VB components can't be pooled! The C++ guy on my team also used it to get his pooled component working correctly.

I've read several books in the past about COM programming/fundamentals - most of the books out there in the market jump into programming before clearly explaining the underlying concepts - THIS BOOK IS DEFINITELY AN EXCEPTION. The author explains all the concepts in-depth, he takes it one step further by not assuming that the reader is familiar with MicroSoft nomenclature and then walks through the examples. This book is a good start for a COM beginner, although there are typos/programming errors - the ftp site has all the compiled examples, so no problem there. This is one of the very few books available on the subject which you would not stop reading after the first 100 pages- if not anything, it gets rid of the COM fear :-) Read this book and start building simple COM examples along with the examples in the chapter - you will be on your way to COM/COM+ all by yourself with some help from MSDN ofcourse !

I contacted Prentice Hall about the FTP site not working, and they fixed the problem promptly -- the code samples are now available.

I've looked at other COM books, and this may be the most useful one available. It contains plenty of practical examples, and is written with more care than most recent programming books. Perhaps as a result of the ridiculous pace with which new tools and standards are being introduced in these hectic times, there's a tendency for authors to rush to get their books on the shelves first. I'm happy to report that this book is not a rush job; it's definitely a keeper.

For a COM beginner such as myself, this book provided a vital introduction to necessary concepts and techniques. The author wasted few words in conveying his information, and never talked down to us poor dummies.

I was particularly taken with the author's didactic technique of including at least 2-3 egregious typos or omissions in the examples at the end of each chapter.

To find the source code for these examples -- and unless you're already an expert, you *will* need the source code -- do not bother checking the url in the Introduction. Go to the Prentice Hall home ftp site drill down from there. END

Out of the last 6 COM books I've read over the past 3 months, this is by far the best and helped to clarify concepts in the others. I'd recommend this highly as a 1st COM book. Makes an excellent reference as well. The book is organized in a very logical and progressive manner that makes it not only helpful, but interesting as well. All concepts are made very clear, and plenty of other references are provided. I could actually start a COM project after reading this one.

If you really want to know what COM and COM+ is all about, this book is for you. I've tried some other COM books before that one, but still had hard time to understand the topic. It has a lot of real life examples and most of explanations are very clear. The only problem is that code from the book must be slightly edited some times to compile. Plus I found some typos. But still-EXCELLENT BOOK.

This book provides a good introduction to COM, and is very clearly written. It is also more carefully written than most computer books I've seen lately, with relatively few typos.

The biggest problem is that there's no CD-ROM included. The source code is supposed to be on the author's web site, along with omitted code samples that he frequently alludes to, but as of this writing, there's NOTHING on the web site. Buyer beware.

I have read many books on COM and COM+ and I would recommend this book as one of the essential books to bring any programmer into the world of COM and COM+.
Perhaps, it's because of the authors background as a teacher, I don't know, but this book takes EXTREME care in the organization and progression and just as importantly in the source code that goes with it. This really stands out compared with so many of the other books I have come across.
I could go on and on, but just to single out one source of praise, the author takes great care in telling the user how to set up the development environment. I have seen so many books that perhaps assume everything will work or that their readers are smart enough to figure this all out for themselves.
It was published in 2000, and Microsoft is moving everyone to .NET, but I still believe this is valuable to resource every Microsoft platform programmer interested in making sense of COM, should have on the bookself.

This book leaves a lot to be desired. First it has numerous mistakes. Second the title of the book is way misleading. You will not learn COM from this nor will you even come close as this book is way too general. IMHO this book is a complete waste of money. Granted that it will probably take 3 or 4 books to get COM down but this book deosn't aid you in anyway. The author's idea of laying the foundations of COM is walking you through an example where he leaves out explainations to the point that you can't create your own COM servers without a great deal of additional references. This book is not for C++ developers, its for analysts who need to evaluate technological alternatives or, perhaps, Visual Basic programmers who don't need the underlyings of COM just a high-level overview. In other words this book is of no help to C++ software engineers. Instead check out "Inside COM" or "Essential COM".

This book is beautifully written. Very clear explanations. A nice logical flow and obviously the author knows his subject well.
However, the production of the book is awful. In the text there is code that is missing. In order to solve the problems in building the examples, I downloaded (ftp) the code from the book site. Some of the downloaded code refused to compile due to missing lines. When finally it compiled and built, it refused to run giving "Invalid class string" errors. It is such a shame that such a good book is flawed in this way.
In spite of all this, the text is clear and explains the horrors of COM software well.
I am glad I bought it.