Programming Components with Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 (Microsoft Programming Series) [Paperback]

Guy Eddon (Author), Henry Eddon (Author)

Book Description

Series: Microsoft Programming Series | Publication Date: October 1, 1998

In "Programming Components with Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0", authors Guy and Henry Eddon take the component orientation of their popular book, ACTIVE VISUAL BASIC; update the content for Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0, Windows 98, Microsoft Internet Explorer 4, and the evolutions in COM; and present it to the growing audience for COM and enterprise titles. "Programming Components with Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0" covers:

ActiveX Controls and Documents

COM Components

Visual Basic 6.0 support for COM programming

Scalability and Microsoft Transaction Server

Universal Data Access

Active Server Pages and IIS. Enterprise developers and experienced Visual Basic programmers will find "Programming Components with Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 to be a valuable Languages/Visual Basic resource.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Quickly construct the building blocks for high-performance solutions with Programming Components with Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0, Second Edition. Walk through Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM) and discover how the newest version of Visual Basic packs significant COM and DCOM production power. As you advance your component programming skill, you'll work with ActiveX controls and Microsoft Transaction Server to deliver functionality and scalability to applications. With the authors' expert instruction and the reusable components on the companion CD, you can optimize your time creating solution--and spend less time coding.

About the Author

Guy Eddon is a freelance developer, lecturer, and author specializing in COM, DCOM, and Visual Basic. Henry Eddon is responsible for component architecture design at United Parcel Service. Together, they've written extensively about distributed computing in leading publications such as Microsoft Systems Journal and they've co-authored Active Visual Basic 5.0, and Inside Distributed COM, from Microsoft Press.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press; 2nd edition (October 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572319666
• ISBN-13: 978-1572319660
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,211,856 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A broad survey of components for the VB developer, March 25, 2000

By 

Dr. Robert C.A. Goff, MCSD, MCSE, MCDBA "Coun... (Blacksburg, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Programming Components with Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 (Microsoft Programming Series) (Paperback)

This is a well written and logical survey of COM from a VB perspective. With only 371 pages of text, it attempts to tackle a broad subject area. The level of complexity is comparable to what is expected in the VB Distributed exam (70-175), for which it is an excellent study adjunct.

I enjoyed reading it from end to end, and keep it as a reference for certain developer skills that I use infrequently. While I consider the book to be aimed at a "beginner" in COM, beginners in COM are at least intermediate level VB developers. The moniker on the cover, "for enterprise developers", is a little misleading, since serious enterprise VB developers will need more detail than is provided. However, in creating a survey aimed at broadening one's understanding of all of Microsoft's COM technologies, the Eddons are successful.

Weaknesses: The book is far too brief for so broad a subject matter. For example, a single chapter on MTS (the lifeblood of n-tier architecture performance) can only touch the highlights. Creation of ActiveX controls gets much deeper coverage. Another weakness is the (not unexpected) Microsoft optimism with respect to the performance and robustness of COM technologies. A healthy dose of caveats is lacking.

Conclusion: A good introduction to COM for intermediate level VB developers. A superb study adjunct for 70-175 candidates.

47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excelent presentation of DCOM for Visual Basic programmers, November 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Programming Components with Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 (Microsoft Programming Series) (Paperback)

This book explains the underlying architecture and complexities of COM, and shows what advantages it offers to Visual Basic developers. This well organized book first explains how to build simple COM components and then complex ones like ActiveX Controls. Code sample and exercises reinforce the presented material. The chapter on Transaction Server explains the issues of scalability. This is the best book on DCOM for the VB programmer.

45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great resource for learning how to use COM with VB., August 15, 1999

By 

Steven Nicolaou (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Programming Components with Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 (Microsoft Programming Series) (Paperback)

Sooner or later you have to take advantage of COM in your VB apps and until you do, you're missing out on VB's key to building proper component based solutions, which is what COM is about. This is a great walkthrough for the experienced VB developers who have heard so much about COM but never really grasped it. It is actually a pleasant read and easy to understand, rich in information and backgrounders as well as putting the various technologies into perspective. After struggling to understand COM, this was the only book that helped me finally understand it- that is, as much as you need to know for VB development. It does not go into great detail about the COM specification itself, but rather as deep as a VB programmer needs to go before using it to its best potential. Get it if you are experienced with Visual Basic and want to get the full story about ActiveX DLL's & EXE's, ActiveX Controls, ActiveX Documents (and everything else ActiveX), that Implements keyword, a good primer and resource to data access (DAO/ADO/RDO/ODBC/OLE DB) and Transaction Server, and a decent introduction to ASP. After reading it, it remains a valuable reference as well.