Customer Reviews

Professional Visual C++ 5 Activex/Com Control Programming (Professional S)

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

 

 

I'm a very experienced developer who's been programming since most of you were still in public school. Technical books are generally not a challenge for me but this one certainly was. Not because of the complexity of the subject, but because of the overwhelming amount of irrelevant information. Showing countless screen shots of behind-the-scenes code generated by the various Microsoft tools used to create COM objects is a collosal waste of time. 99% of the readers will never need to know any of this nor should they. Their explanation of this code, besides a waste of time, is also limp and extremely incomplete. Countless details are missing even when it's highly relevant (for example, the basic syntax of IDL files is nowhere to be found). Coupled will countless snapshots of COM API calls which look as if they've been copied straight from the compiler documentation, and huge bloated examples that spend more time dealing with non-COM related issues than anything practical (and which can take weeks to wade through), this book is a prime example of an experienced developer but a neophyte author (whose programming skills, based on some of the examples I saw, also need sharpening regardless of his knowledge of COM).

The book starts well. The scene is set nicely in the first two chapters and the authors promise you the earth. Then they seem to loose the plot. Not only do they get bogged down with too much detail and not enough overview, but lots of little mistakes seem to creep into the text. It's a pity but it seems that the book was never passed by an editor. For instance, in Chapter 4 on page 136 the authors promise to 'have a lot more to say about threading models at the end of this chapter (see the section named COM Threading Models)'. The only problem being there simply isn't a section named COM Threading Models in this or any other chapter! Furthermore, one might pardon one broken promise in one page but to do it twice is unforgiveable! Later in the same page, the authors refer to the same imaginary section!!

But such mistakes and omissions are not confined to this chapter. The authors simply leave the reader bewildered and disappointed. I don't recommend it.

If you seek a book that provides real solutions to programming challenges, skip this one. If you're looking for ways to impress your friends by baffling them with useless detail and confusing presentation, by all means buy it! Basically, you get the generic plagiarization of COM overview, and then a rambling, incoherant dissertation on the benefits of micro-analyzing binary code dumps while investigating everything of irrelevance. These guys are the type that want to rewrite the world's entire software base in assembler.

There are some good treatments here, but I'm interested in applying knowledge to solutions, not bit-busting everything down to the Nth degree to prove I'm an MSEE. Soaking up 465 pages of digression to wind up with one control is not my idea of producing results. HTML references, historical treatises of intranets, treatment of security issues, sales pitches, obtuse examples ineffectually explained, and missing imperatives conspire to make this book one of the great paperweights of its time.

Here's the deal: you're in a hurry, you're in a fog, you think you understand it, but you don't. Every time you go to write code, you realize you're missing half the parameters, or half your brain. COM in C++ is a pain. So what's needed is a smart code dump, some well-annotated pragmatic sample code. Techniques you can practically cut and paste. Stuff that uses the new features in VC++5. Amazingly the Microsoft samples don't help much. This book is built around some examples that work. Who knows if they are 100% correct, but they use the latest techniques, they compile, and they work. And the annotation is pretty darned good - nice long story, excellent at times, rambling at moments, but the code is the message. So if they had only covered all the stuff they promised, it would be a 10. Missing? Connection points (terrible omission), more variations on MFC and non-MFC servers and clients, ATL and raw C++, a discussion of threading models, in fact another half of your brain. But what's here is very, very useful. Worth $40 any day.

I was not impressed with this book. The 'unusual" introduction using a BLOB to explain COM was dreadful. Basically, I didn't like the author's writing style, and lost confidence in his explanations of the subject. There were errors in the text. Maybe it's just me, but I am annoyed with little things like not naming something correctly, such as saying the "A" in ATL means "ActiveX" instead of "Active".

If you need an introduction to ActiveX and COM, then you'll be happy until somewhere after the middle of the book. This is a useful, extraordiarily detailed introduction to ActiveX/COM, bogged down with an eventual mixing of terms, technology, and purpose.

The book leads one logically from the principles of COM, to simple COM objects, and a full-fleged ActiveX control. These early chapters have proven very useful, covering COM-by-hand up to effective use of MFC/ATL.

Unfortunately, the book then slides into extreme complexity (and some early chapters were rich with uneeded information). We needed more clarity and more appendix.

This is not a bad book. It was worth the money to me. It's just that I felt like the authors forgot that this is an introduction halfway through.

The book starts well, with a clear introduction to COM and then demonstrates how to write a COM object without MFC/ATL to show what goes on under the surface and then how ATL speeds things up. It thens loses the plot somewhat and jumps between OCX (MFC based) controls, more ATL and DCOM covering each in insufficient depth. We really need a book which tells us clearly and in detail how to use ATL to write COM objects of all types. How about it someone (M/soft?) - there are lots of us waiting to buy it!

You start like the shuttle "Discovery" in understanding of COM, but the book is overwhelmed with unnecessary details and sometimes you are lost within those details. Quick switch between technologies (COM/ATL/DCOM) is confusing. This book too simple for those who knows what is it COM and too complicated for those who don't. Comparing to "Inside COM" I would not recommend to read this book.

I am an entry level developer and I am trying to grasp this COM/DCOM stuff. This book was recommended but it just doesn't help. The book starts off with what looks like a nice easy intro to COM and DCOM then jumps to a hole lotta hoopla, what is going on? The code examples are difficult to follow and do not make sense unless you know what you are doing. They jump from topic to topic and mainly confuse the reader. I do not recommend this book unless you have a good understanding of ActiveX and COM already. And if you are not experienced with Visual C++, don't even bother.

Extremely well organized coverage of pretty complex material. I think it did a very good job of taking the reader from native COM into ATL with well organized examples. I found the best way to go through this book is to step through the example code while reading. It is deficient in lack of material on connection interfaces ,however, what material it does cover, it covers very well. I don't think MFC exeperience is particularly needed but a good C++ background is necessary to really get the most out of the material.