Customer Reviews

Developer's Workshop to COM and ATL 3.0

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The book is not perfect. I did run across a few mistakes; I had some trouble with a couple of the examples. But this book is far and away the best tutorial on COM and ATL that is out there. It is more than a simplistic introduction. The author starts with simple concepts, usually in straight C++, and progresses in a very logical sequence to an intermediate level using ATL. Many subtleties are covered but in context of the overall presentation. There is none of this inexplicable, out of context pandering to fellow COM gurus that seems to motivate so many software authors.

This book is easily superior to "Beginning ATL 3 COM," "COM+ From the Ground Up," and "Creating Lightweight Components." The other ATL book that is good is "Active Template Library," but this book is better and more recent. For example, it does a far better job of explaining ATL internals. Amazingly, the explanations of ATL are in many ways superior to a book on the market that purports to be solely an ATL internals book. Of course, the difference is that one author can write, the other cannot.

In any event I do not hesitate in declaring this book at this time to be the one book that is best at explaining and conducting a thoroughgoing learning session in COM and ATL. I applaud the author for rising above the mediocrity that so typifies programming books.

If you have read Don Box's Essential COM, which is a great book covering COM theory, Andrew Troelsen's book will be perfect for you to get your hands wet on COM using ATL. I have personally waited a long time for this book. All the Wrox books on this subject have failed to deliver! Andrew presents ATL in an extremely logical manner. In Each chapter he always starts implementing COM with plain C++ code and then teaches you how ATL makes life easier for you by hidding all the boiler plate code in the template. You can tell that the author has spent a lot of time dissecting and understanding ATL. It seems to me that some of the Wrox authors were rushing things and finally gave us only half-cooked meal.

In my opinion, the time you will be saved from reading the ATL code yourself is well worth the money. Besides, The lab in this book makes you feel like sitting in a training class and this will save you or your company a few thousand bucks.

I also learned some useful VC++ IDE tips in this book.

I've had the [mis]fortune to have bought or read over almost every COM and ATL book out there, and have been disappointed time and again.

What usually happens is that the explanations are simply too thin for the meaty subject matter of COM and ATL. A typical problem is that macros are referred to without explanation, talk about BSTRings and smart pointers fly left and right, all with the assumption that the reader must have a built-in familiarity with the subjects.

Not to hammer these other authors, since the subject is quite difficult to get a grasp on and explain, but I'd just about given up on finding a cogent explanation on COM and ATL which I could use.

Then I came across this book and Tom Armstrong's "ATL Developer's Guide". They're the only two books I can reccomend for any COM/ATL beginner. Personally, I feel this book is the better of the two, as the lab discussions and explanations Mr. Troelsen provides really help walk the reader through some difficult parts. It's a good read, and about subjects on which he could have easily lost the reader. Quite the balancing act.

If you're starting out in COM and ATL, you'll certainly want this book. I'd also reccomend "ATL Developer's Guide" as a sort of second-reference, because it's also a good one. If you've only budgeted for one however, this is the keeper.

I've been programming professionally for the last two years. While I have worked with COM before it has mainly been through VB. That has always bothered me because my main language is C++. Unfortunately, implementing solutions in C++ that require COM can be time consuming.

Enter ATL.

ATL makes COM development a snap but it can be a complex beast in it's own rite. Many of ATL's features are hidden behind complex templates and macros which facilitate rapid application development. Learning ATL is a breeze thanks to the Wizards but *understanding* what it does, how it does it, and why it does it is a different matter.

Enter COM and ATL 3.0.

This book provides answers to the most common questions that a developer learning ATL might ask. I absolutely love the side-by-side comparisons; raw C++ COM and ATL COM. This theme is carried through out the book. I cannot begin to offer enough praise for this method of teaching. It gives the developer a solid foundation in the 'nitty-gritty' of writing COM using raw C++. After demonstrating the 'raw' approach, the ATL method is examined. By having the fore-knowledge of the 'raw' method the reader can appreciate the ATL approach and better understand it.

This book is also packed with an indepth examination of ATLs inner workings. The authour displays a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of what he is discussing - a rare quality among technical authours lately.

For those developers out there who are like me and want to understand the *WHY* and not just the *HOW* this book is for you.

This book is truly outstanding. Andrew Troelsen really understands his subject, not a comment I could attribute to very many other authors. The best part is he obviously understands the problems developers new to C++ COM and ATL experience, because all the questions I had from reading other books are answered here. Nothing at all is left to chance, and not too much knowledge is assumed. Do yourself a favour, if you want to learn these subjects properly, thoroughly and easily buy this book. Trust me, none of the other titles come close, I have most of them. A personal message to Andrew Troelsen, thank you for saving me so much pain!

An excellent book for beginning COM developers. Readers of this book should be already experienced in C / C++ development, but no prior COM knowledge is necessary. The text is well-written and follows a clear, logical sequence from the simple to the complex. By the time a reader reaches the conclusion of this book, he or she will have an excellent base for COM / ATL development.

The only downside I found was that the examples were sometimes not completely correct. These generally tended to be very minor issues, such as indentation, or not initializing variables before use, etc. None of these types of errors detracted, however, from the lesson the examples were supposed to convey.

I'd call this book a Must Have, and well worth its price.

If you want to learn COM in C++, this book is DEFINITELY where you should start. If you find COM difficult to grasp, don't worry, it is most likely because you haven't learned from the right resources, or you haven't read this book.

This book really covers all the essentials of COM programming. The author does a great job in making COM simple to comprehend. For instance, the author takes you step by step in every step of the way in every detail that required for you to get your hands dirty with code practises. Not only the explainations and code samples in the book are CLEAR, they are also backed up with diagrams on topics that are just can not be dissolved by words alone. Nicely done!

If you were to take COM in University, this would be one of the two books required for the course. "Inside COM" would be for COM 100, and "COM and ATL 3.0" would be for COM 200. So if you want to learn COM in C++, these are your BEST BET. They get you started coding immediately, they provide all the required fundumentals, and best of all, they both are well written with NO mumble-jumble space filler!

TIPS: Atfer you done with Andrew's book, go back and read Dale's book on chapter twelve - "Multiple Threads". See how much you had missed, and how everything ties together.

Developer's Workshop to COM and ATL 3.0 is an effective guide to COM implementation utilizing raw C++ and especially the Active Template Library. Andrew Troelsen is an incredible teacher and writer. In this book, he presents COM in such a way that makes it surprisingly simple and quite magnetic.

The book is extremely well-organized. Troelsen analyzes most aspects of COM components with the exception of, for example, custom proxy/stub marshaling and on advanced COM multithreading. He presents examples of each aspect of COM via raw C++ and followed by an implementation via ATL. The developer gets to see and understand each implementation of a COM component in raw C++ and ultimately appreciate the simplicity that the ATL framework brings to COM development.

The author's teaching style and organization is amazing! He organizes COM topics in terms of complexity especially toward implementation. Troelsen presents concise implementation examples that effectively help the developer learn the design and development process of COM components. In every discussion on a theory of COM architecture, he includes a raw C++ example and then followed by an ATL version of the implementation. Furthermore, Troelsen organizes the examples such that each example builds on from previous examples. In other words, each example is the previous example with one or more new features such as an added aggregated COM object or an added callback interface. Troelsen's teaching style and organization coupled with a good understanding of COM architecture and the ATL framework shine in Developer's Workshop to COM and ATL 3.0. This book is an effective guide to COM design and implementation in raw C++ and especially ATL.

I highly recommend Developer's Workshop to COM and ATL 3.0 to advanced C++ programmers and real-world COM developers.

Kuphryn

This book does not cover COM theory as deep as Box's Essential COM, but I found it very helpful to understand how the ATL simplifies COM programming. The examples in the book are logical and easy to follow. Most importantly, they help me to understand the proper COM programming style. This is the perfect book for COM beginners using ATL with VC++.

I love this book. The author goes into great detail about COM and ATL in a way that is simple and clear. He presents each concept in raw C++ and then in ATL. He provides hands-on exercises with each new concept that focus almost exclusively on teaching the new concept. He doesn't drag you through long, detailed exercises every time he wants to communicate one or two ideas. The author is an MCSD who does COM and ATL for a living and it shows on every page. The book presents just the right blend of theory and hands-on. The goal of this book seems to be to enable its readers to be competent in COM and ATL asap. I have 4 other COM books on my shelf and I don't think any of them hold a candle to it. Don't miss this book.