Amazon.com Review
Written for the advanced C++ programmer,
ATL Internals reveals the inner workings of the Active Template Library (ATL), the toolkit of choice for building today's lightweight Internet and server components.
The book begins with a tour of the ATL code generated by the Microsoft Visual C++ 6 AppWizard. The authors introduce fundamental ATL programming issues here, but they do not provide a general introduction to COM or ATL; they assume that readers have a good deal of background in both C++ and COM.
The book focuses on the extremely useful ATL support classes for managing strings (BSTRs), variants, and smart pointers. It covers the classes that help instantiate COM components (and examines support for different threading models and "creator" classes). The guide continues with object internals--covering object maps and the classes used to manage them--and interfaces, including aggregates and various interface design options. Information on ATL's support for persistence, which lets objects save and restore their state; on how ATL supports basic containers; and on interfaces that work with the Standard Template Library (STL) in C++ is well done.
Later sections explain how to work with windows and ActiveX controls. After some material on events (and connection points), the authors reveal ATL support for basic window operations, including dialogs. For building a custom ActiveX control, the authors provide an excellent example of a nicely functional visual control. (This code will prove invaluable since it illustrates all the essentials of ATL component programming.) --Richard Dragan
Review
"ATL Internals is definitely a book worth having (and reading) if you are serious about ATL 3.0. ... the number one resource they will continuously find themselves referring to for gaining the true mastery of every ATL-related topic and to rule out the situations not clearly addressed by the official documentation.... if you have room for only one on your desk at the office, this is the right one to always keep at hand." --
Davide Marcato, Dr. Dobb's Electronic Review of Computer BooksRead the full review for this book.
A bit late in hitting the shelves, ATL Internals is definitely a book worth having (and reading) if you are serious about ATL 3.0. Compared to its most direct competitor, Professional ATL COM Programming, this book is less example-driven and spends less time indoctrinating the reader on the theory of COM or on general utilization of ATL in working scenarios. Which of the two is the best? Professional ATL COM Programming better fits the needs of the ATL developers that have a somewhat incomplete knowledge of COM and seek a pragmatic, full-of-examples path to ATL proficiency. But ATL Internals is the number one resource they will continuously find themselves referring to for gaining true mastery of every ATL-related topic and to rule out the situations not clearly addressed by the official documentation. --Davide Marcato, Dr. Dobb's Electronic Review of Computer Books -- Dr. Dobb's Electronic Review of Computer Books
by Don Box
by Dale Rogerson
by Christopher Tavares
by Andrew Troelsen
