Professional Com Applications With Atl [Paperback]

Panos Economopoulos (Author), Panos Economopoulos (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1998

This book examines how and why you should use COM, ActiveX controls and DNA Business Objects, and how these components are linked together to form robust, flexible and scalable applications. A key part of the book is the extended case study in which we produce a distributed events calendar that fits Microsoft's Distributed interNet Applications (DNA) model. This three-tier application uses flexible browser-based controls for the client user interface, business objects on both client and server to process the required information efficiently and Universal Data Access to perform the queries and updates. It depends on the support for component-based development now available for Windows NT server.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

This book is for experienced Visual C++ programmers. No prior knowledge of COM or ATL is assumed, as the book gives a full tutorial to them both, as well as the relevant pieces of the BackOffice jigsaw - MTS, MSMQ, SQL Server and OLE DB. The additions and changes to this book make it both significant and relevant to readers of the first edition, Professional ActiveX/COM Control Programming.

About the Author

Sing Li First bitten by the computer bug in 1978, Sing has grown up with the microprocessor revolution. His first 'PC' was a $99 do-it-yourself Neutronics COSMIC ELF computer with 256 bytes of memory and a 1 bit LED display. Currently, Sing is an active author, speaker, consultant, instructor, and entrepreneur. He has participated in several Wrox projects, written for popular technical journals and is the creator of the 'Internet Global Phone', one of the very first Internet phones available. His wide-ranging consulting expertise spans multi-tiered Internet/intranet systems, distributed architectures, digital convergence technologies, computer integrated telephony, call center technology, multi-media messaging and embedded systems.

Sing works with the Willcam Group in developing and delivering intensive, advanced technical training. As the founder of Microwonders Inc, Sing is currently working on research for an end-to-end digital replacement for the conventional telephone. Other on-going research projects include various enabling 'infrastructural' technologies for the 'new millennium global citizen with no fixed physical address'. When back on earth, Sing is fascinated by the pragmatic technology offerings from Microsoft and is also a Java enthusiast.

Product Details

• Paperback: 736 pages
• Publisher: Apress (September 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1861001703
• ISBN-13: 978-1861001702
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,355,133 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Certainly not a "Professional" book, November 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Professional Com Applications With Atl (Paperback)

The main thing that I have against this book is that its is neither "Professional" nor "Beginning" book. Authors spend a lot of time talking about things that should be familiar if not obvious for professional COM programmer, but fail to spend enough time on subjects that really matter like ATL. Although they stated that no prior knowledge of ATL or COM is required, if this is a case you probably won't understand the book at all. Good example is OLE DB chapter: talking a lot about relational database theory, ODBC, OLE DB but not enough about ATL database access templates. It's a typical bloated book teaching you how to repeat the project that authors did and nothing else. If you have some COM experience this book is a waste of time (you won't learn ATL from it - at least not as much as you would like). If you are new to COM you won't use it either, as it will not explain COM or ATL enough for you to understand.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Middle of the road..., May 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Professional Com Applications With Atl (Paperback)

As someone with a basic knowledge of COM (gained through VB, VJ++ and MTS) this book cleared up several nagging questions that I had about low level COM and COM terminology. It also got me started with ATL. However, I found that the book suffered from being both too detailed and too selective. When the authors tackled a topic they tackled it in excruciating detail. Unfortunatley the topics where chosen from too many different subject areas resulting in incomplete coverage of any one subject area. In the end I felt that I learned a lot about certain topics but I hadn't learned enough core ATL to build a real application. The back cover states that "no prior knowledge of COM or ATL is assumed, as the book gives a full tutorial on both." It is true that this book begins with the very basics of COM and ATL but the coverage is by no means 'full'. After about 300 pages I made a list of all of the _basic_ things that I thought I would need to know to work with ATL on a daily basis. This list was based on my experience with VB, Java, C++, and OO in general. At the 300 page mark this book had covered between 1/4 and 1/3 of my list. I just didn't get what I needed from this book fast enough.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not an introduction to the subject, January 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Professional Com Applications With Atl (Paperback)

I bought this book looking for a beginning text on COM and ATL 3. I know this is in Wrox's "Professional" series but the back of the book claims it is suitable as an introduction to ATL/COM for the experienced Visual C++ programmer. Also, neither of Wrox's ATL/COM "Beginning" books covers ATL 3. Well, It proved to be a very poor introduction. I was overloaded with details from the first few pages of the book and ended up absorbing little until I gave up. A coworker of mine had the same complaint.

I've since read Inside COM (which is a good introduction) and done some COM programming. Now I use Professional COM/ATL as a reference and it is a good book in that regard. It contains the best coverage I've found for using MTS and MSMQ in C++.

So if you use this book as a reference and to get pieces of information as you need it, you'll probably find it pretty good. But if you try to read it straight through as a learning tool you're likely to be frustrated.