Sams Teach Yourself ATL Programming in 21 Days [Paperback]

Kenn Scribner (Author)

Book Description

Series: Sams Teach Yourself | Publication Date: February 16, 2000

Sams Teach Yourself ATL Programming in 21 Days quickly empowers you to create your own small, fast COM components quickly and easily using the Active Template Library. Written by a professional developer who applies ATL in his everyday development, the book provides guidance and direction, leading you through a progression of topics that begin with the basic building blocks of COM programming, and ending with in-depth discussions of the more commonly used features of the Active Template Library. Topics include creating your first ATL COM object, understanding the ATL architecture, using the ATL app wizard, working with ATL helper classes, handling ATL errors, using C++ templates, using multithreading, creating ATL applications, automation with ATL, combining ATL and OLE dB for database access, and using ATL with MTS (transactions).

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Sams Teach Yourself ATL Programming in 21 Days quickly empowers you to create your own small, fast COM components quickly and easily using the Active Template Library. Written by a professional developer who applies ATL in his everyday development, the book provides guidance and direction, leading you through a progression of topics that begin with the basic building blocks of COM programming, and ending with in-depth discussions of the more commonly used features of the Active Template Library. Topics include creating your first ATL COM object, understanding the ATL architecture, using the ATL app wizard, working with ATL helper classes, handling ATL errors, using C++ templates, using multithreading, creating ATL applications, automation with ATL, combining ATL and OLE dB for database access, and using ATL with MTS (transactions).

About the Author

Kennard Scribner is a senior systems programmer with the world's largest supplier of information services for the legal industry, where he uses Visual C++ and ATL to develop custom applications that are marketed in more than 60 countries. In addition, he is the founder and President of The EnduraSoft Corporation, a software company specializing in the creation of custom components. Kenn writes the “Windows Programming” column for “TechTalk” , the newsletter of the Small Computer Book Club and acts as a Windows programming technical reviewer for several publishers. Kenn is the co-author of MFC Programming with Visual C++6 Unleashed, and contributed to Sams Teach Yourself DirectX 7 in 24 Hours.

Product Details

• Paperback: 672 pages
• Publisher: Sams (February 16, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672318679
• ISBN-13: 978-0672318672
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,212,033 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not enough fundamentals early on..., November 1, 2000

By 

Adam Pemberton (Newcastle, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself ATL Programming in 21 Days (Paperback)

I have recently started learning ATL (having read Inside COM by Dale Rogerson and some of Don Box). Teach Yourself ATL was my first ATL book. Bad Move...

His overall approach is, in my opinion, inappropriate. After having read 8 chapters I found myself thinking what do I know? I understand how to use the Wizards, but I still have no idea how the IUknown interface is implemented, or how objects are instantiated. In my opinion the only way to COM/ATL success is to understand what the Wizards are doing. Sure they're great in incredibly speeding up the COM development time but if you don't understand what their doing, your hardly any better off.

Kenn gives you the concepts well enough but concept after concept after concept eventually becomes meaningless unless you can see the dirty detail in action. The book is not a write-off but as a beginners text it didn't suit me.

Personally I found Tom Armstrongs "ATL Developers guide" much better. Instead of developing clients in MFC with all the extra messy details, he used bare-bones console apps which allow you to focus purely on COM/ATL. He talks about what ATL is doing and how the basics of COM is implemented. ATL at this level is dirty, messy stuff but its fundamental.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Learning Tool, June 9, 2000

By 

William E. Eaken - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself ATL Programming in 21 Days (Paperback)

This book provides a tight, insightful introduction to ATL programming for the windows programmer moving to COM via ATL. Its also extremely useful as a reference tool.

A won't regret purchase and addition to the programmer's bookshelf.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ATL Programming in 21 Days, November 8, 2000

By 

Yaniv Maor (Israel) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself ATL Programming in 21 Days (Paperback)

Very good good book. It's really tech you the basic block of the ATL programming and the background that you need to move from Regular Visual c++ applications to ATL. The writer is going step by step How ever this book it not for Visual c++ beginners or if you are looking to become an expert in ATL. I was more interested in the DB and IIS aspects using ATL but it only give you the general idea.