Customer Reviews

Waite Group's COM/DCOM Primer Plus

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I liked the book because it gave a good overview of COM/DCOM technologies. It really is the most friendly introduction to COM development. Since the title indicates this book is a primer, I wasn't expecting anything more. I didn't regret purchasing the book, and I would probably recommend it to someone brand new to COM development.

Having said that, it wasn't the best COM development book I've read, primarily because there was a lot of unnecessary material to wade through. For example, chapter 2 starts by explaining basic C++ object-oriented topics such as classes and inheritance. Presumably the reader is already familiar with these simple concepts, and isn't trying to learn C++ with this book. I'm new to C++ and even I found these topics unnecessary. Since the author explores COM via MFC, the reader never gets a clear understanding of COM itself. More difficult topics, like aggregation, aren't explained at all, but are left to MFC to implement behind the scenes. The main sample program is a big MFC program, which means you have to wade through pages of MFC code to understanding the few lines of COM-specific code. The chapter on multithreading is worthless. It consists of a series of terse descriptions of multithread API calls, followed by a couple of pages of unexplained, uncommented code which use the calls.

Inside COM by Dale Rogerson is a better intro to COM programming, but doesn't cover the breadth of material this book does.

Problems with book:

1) Book should've mentioned up front they were focussing on COM/DCOM with MFC support. Focuses heavily on the MFC side of COM/DCOM, which we do not use.

2) Treatment of ATL does not exploit all the work VC6 can do for you.

3) Book spends two chapters covering C++ and OOD, which they expect you to already know at anyways. Why not omit those chapters and spend more time talking about what the book truly is about.

However, this book did give me a good overview of COM/DCOM. Having read Inside COM and looked at a few others, this book left out a great deal. A good intro book but be sure to have Inside COM side by side with this one.

The examples had too much MFC/GUI code. Should focus on COM rather than explaining how MFC works. They also omit how to set up your projects in VC6. VC6 can do a lot of the prework ahead for you and they consistently failed to utilize it.

I must admit I have just read the 5 first chapters these last 3 days and I feel I've gained a deeper understanding of COM. - However the authors does not state how to set up the VC++ project settings to get the code to work. - I've been fighting of Linker errors most of the time since I started typing in the code. It may be I am not proficient enough in VC++ but with a little help from the book I could be focusing on COM instead of VC++ quirks.

Some of the code included <iostream> and <string> libraries but did not have "using namespace std" in the printed code. Since I have just been studying namespaces this was not the biggest problem for me.

I went to www.mcp.com to fetch updates but I was very dissapointed that there was no updates there.

Even though I feel that the book has allready given me more in depth insight in COM I am dissapointed that I have to spend a lot of time browsing the CD-project code to see what made the samples work.

Good book since the concepts are covered with real programs. One can get fundamental of COM/DCOM in record time. I did not know what COM/DCOM before reading it but just in 15 days I mastered the concepts. However, the writers could have avoided unnecessary detailed programming which does not incorporate materials of COM/DCOM. It took me some time to figure out what part of the codes are relevant and what not. It wasted my time and energy in locating relevant portions in the code

Not as good as "Inside COM" which I also rate as a 5 star book but is simpler to understand and can be used very effectively in conjunction with the above named book. Very reasuring to the reader.

The source code in chapter 3 does not compile under VC++ 6. The author uses STL libraries for <string> and <iostream> but does not add: using namespace std; in his code in the book, but he does on the CDROM. His code on the CD ROM greatly varies from what is in the book. What gives?! Of course Waite Press (MCP) does not offer any "errata" or updates. I will NEVER buy an MCP book again! Also in chapter three the author says to compile the DLL....where did this DLL suddendly come from? I though we were making console EXEs? No help, not worth it.

this book is probably the most understandable that i've read about COM. Chris Corry writes about this subject so well that anybody could understand and comprehend COM.

The Waite Group's COM/DCOM Primer Plus is a great book. Very witty, creative and above all very informative. The authors are outstanding and have a keen grasp of COM. Reading this book is a definite do!

Micro$oft is famous for its ability to push out new development technologies. The reason behind this planned obsolesence is obvious, every time they come out with something new people will have to open their wallets to "keep up."

Don't feel bad, the publishing companies got suckered too.

DCOM is just another disposable technology. As such, it was a complete failure; one that the marketing folks at M$ have tried to bury as quickly as possible under an avalanche of .NET hype.

DCOM was hard to port because, like COM, it is based on a binary standard (i.e. a standard that changes when you leave x86 and go to 64-bit RISC). Not only that, but DCOM doesn't support distributed transactions. Worst of all, DCOM is a very, very complicated technology to use. Three strikes... YOU'RE OUT!

The half-wit MBAs at Micro$oft realized their mistake and have abandoned DCOM, leaving it forever in the backwaters where the only record of its sorry existence are stupid books like this.

I have no idea why someone would want to buy this book. Folks, this is a dead technology. It is no more. It is an ex-techology. If you buy this book, you are lying to yourself. This book will sit an gather dust, unless you can find more productive uses for it...like burning it to stay warm.

The book is not completely bad, but I wish it had more complete and accurate information -- there's much better material on the marketplace.