Delphi COM Programming [Paperback]

Eric Harmon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2000

This book teaches COM programming to Delphi 4 and 5 programmers. Microsoft COM is prevalent throughout Windows operating systems-95, 98, NT-and is rapidly becoming the programming framework of choice. To build applications which interface with Windows systems, programmers must understand and learn to use COM. This book includes coverage of DCOM, Microsoft's distributed architecture that is based on COM. It also covers the latest developments in Delphi 5. Typical real-world scenarios, such as Windows Shell programming, automating Microsoft Agent, and creating and using ActiveX controls, are explored. Discussion of each topic is illustrated with detailed examples.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Microsoft COM is prevalent throughout Windows operating systems—95, 98, NT-and is rapidly becoming the programming framework of choice. To build applications which interface with Windows systems, programmers must understand and learn to use COM. This book includes coverage of DCOM, Microsoft's distributed architecture that is based on COM. It will also covers the latest developments in Delphi 5. This book will teach COM programming to Delphi 4 and 5 programmers. After providing an understanding of the COM framework, it offers a practical exploration of COM to enable Delphi developers to program component-based applications. Typical real-world scenarios, such as Windows Shell programming, automating Microsoft Agent, and creating and using ActiveX controls, will be explored. Discussion of each topic will be illustrated with detailed examples.

About the Author

Eric Harmon is Director of Software Development at Advanced Estimating Systems, Inc.-located in Delray Beach, Florida. Advanced Estimating Systems is the developer of The EDGE, the industry standard in construction estimating software. Eric is also a member of TPX (TurboPower eXperts), a volunteer group of programmers that assists the TurboPower Software Company in providing support for its newsgroups. Turbopower is one of the premier providers of tools coded in Delphi for Delphi programmers. Eric was recruited by TurboPower as the original member of TPX in 1997. Eric has been programming professionally in Turbo Pascal, Delphi, and Microsoft Visual C++ since 1983. He has also contributed Delphi and COM-related articles to Visual Developer Magazine. Eric can be reached at [e-mail].

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Macmillan Technical Publishing; 1st edition (January 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578702216
• ISBN-13: 978-1578702213
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,638,724 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #38 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Languages & Tools > Borland Delphi

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A must-buy book for intermediate-level developers, February 16, 2000

By 

Grant Walker (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Delphi COM Programming (Paperback)

Until now the only decent Delphi reference on COM has been the two chapters by John Lam in Marco Cantu's "Delphi Developer's Handbook". This new book presents 500 pages of well written, focused coverage of the practicalities of Delphi's COM implementation. It is ideal for those with moderate Delphi skills who want to come up to speed quickly in writing ActiveX Control or Form solutions, or who want a good explanation of the usage of interfaces, variants, connection points, automation or DCOM.

Although it goes into depth in a couple of places - structured storage and property sets in particular - readers will still need to look to people like Binh Ly for advanced discussion of threading models and so forth. I was hoping to find detailed discussion of the internal workings of DAX, TOleContainer and the TComObject/Factory descendants, but most of the code in the book focuses on *using* the VCL framework rather than on its design and the various bugs and gotchas it works around.

Those with C++ COM/OLE experience looking for Delphi solutions (eg those rolling their own OLE DB providers, windowless ActiveX controls or Active Document servers) may be disappointed: it's not "Inside ATL" for the VCL. However I think the majority of Delphi developers - who don't have time to read Brockschmidt or Box but just want tools and solutions that work - will find the book a great time-saver and reference. COM newbies wanting Delphi tutorials need look no further.

It's certainly an excellent contribution to the Delphi literature. I'll be buying a second copy for the office, but it left me thirsty for more.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you are ready, it'll work for you, February 14, 2000

By 

Laurence Killen (Sugar Hill, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Delphi COM Programming (Paperback)

I'm always suspicious of a book from an author I hadn't heard of before and ordering it online didn't help. Within the first couple of pages I was sure I had bought a rehash of everything I had read about COM in so many other books during the last yearand a half. Seeing the many pages of printed code, while I 'fan previewed' the book convinced me that this was the 'filler' of a lightweight. But this was not so. By page 50 Mr. Harmon was clearly taking me places I hadn't been and by the end of the third chapter, I knew that this book would fit nicely between Danny Thorpe and Ray Konopka on my programmers bookshelf.

Eric explains COM from a perspective familiar to a Delphi programmer and doesn't waste time teaching OOP 101 as so many other books of the genre. He starts each new area on friendly turf to a typical delphi programmer, creates a framwork, and builds on that structure to explain rather complex concepts quickly and effectively. I found his method of teaching comprehensive and thorough - yet demanding. If you aren't already reasonably comfortable with OOP than you still have a little more homework to do before you move onto COM. But it'll be here when you are. Even a general understanding of interfaces, com and dcom would be advisable though though he does review the basics briefly. But then he quickly moves through interfaces and drills down into levels that I hadn't encountered and I'm not yet at page 100. About a third of the way through chapter three and I knew I was on the clock - that this book would pay for itself in no time.

I must admit that I am only into Chapter 5 now but did catch a peek of all to come. If you are a reasonably seasoned programmer and want to move on to COM with the rest of the Windows programming community, this is how you do it. Simply start reading at page one, do every example in the book as you go along, sometime before the appendix you will have your COM/DCOM wings. The embedded source code is there because it has to be there. Nearly every line is referenced in the narrative and the text depends on it. If you already have programmed some COM/DCOM experience as I had, you may still find the read worthwhile.

I must caution that the book is exceptionally dry and without witticisms or amusing anecdotes. Mr. Harmon is down to business and makes no effect to entertain the anyone that I can tell. You won't even find a jab at Microsoft here. But if you want to learn COM/DCOM as a Delphi programmer, you have come to the right place. You can always go out to the club when you're done.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learn COM quickly with this book!, March 13, 2000

By 

Filip Cruz (Massacusetts,USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Delphi COM Programming (Paperback)

This is not your typical 1200 page Delphi biceps-builder. This book is compact, well written and to the point. No filler, just meat. The chapters develop each topic with very good examples that illustrate COM and some good coding practices to boot. One caveat is that he does not always give each step if your working through the examples so you may have to do a little detective work to find out how a variable or interface showed up where it did. Take heart though, all the code can be downloaded"~ from the New Riders web site and the examples run fine. He also affords you the curtsey of compiling the examples for you so you can run them even if you don't have the latest version of Delphi. The book can be used equally well with Delphi 3 through 5."~ server by the second chapter!"~ done does not implement this interface directly. It is much more practical to let COM do the marshaling for you.