COM, DCOM & ATL Books

Serial Port Complete: COM Ports, USB Virtual COM Ports, and Ports for Embedded Systems (Complete Guides series)

Jan Axelson

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Hardware -> Microprocessors & System Design -> Embedded Systems
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Hardware -> PCs

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Jan Has It Covered! 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 9 people found this review helpful.

If you work with or need to work with RS-232, USB or RS-485, this book is a must-have reference. The subject matter of this book is heavy on the embedded side of serial communications as Jan covers .NET serial programming and explains how to completely configure a serial port on a microcontroller. Jan then goes on to tell you how to bring up an RS-485 network. Leaving no stone unturned, Jan explains how to design and deploy an embedded RS-232 network.

In addition to the discussion of traditional serial data formats and serial hardware implementations, Jan includes tips on how to use the special-function FTDI USB/Serial IC. She even explains why wires pick up noise and how to choose the right wire for the application.

Jan's new book is a one-stop serial communications reference which includes serial connector pinouts, data format illustrations, example soource code and a multitude of schematic representations. If you need to know how to successfully deploy serial links, you need to have this book on your desk.

Editorial Review:

PC COM ports, USB virtual COM ports, and ports in embedded systems are all addressed in this updated guide to programming, interfacing, and using serial ports. Topics include using .NET’s SerialPort class for COM-port communications on PCs; upgrading existing RS-232 designs to USB or wireless networks; and creating serial networks of embedded systems and PCs. Example circuits and code provide a quick start to projects. Installation and maintenance staff will also find tips for ensuring reliable operation and problem tracking.

Essential COM (DevelopMentor Series)

Don Box

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Microsoft -> Development -> C & C++ Windows Programming
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Networking -> Networks, Protocols & APIs -> COM & DCOM
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Operating Systems -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 91 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Component Object Model (COM) is deep and extremely difficult, making it impossible to grasp the ideas behind this specification quickly or easily. Don Box, the author of Essential COM concedes that it took him six months of reading documentation, writing programs, and experiencing general puzzlement before he had his personal COM epiphany. Nonetheless, if you're a C++ programmer and you want your skills to continue to be relevant in a PC market dominated by Windows 95 and Windows NT, you need to get going down the path toward your own COM enlightenment. COM is the tool of choice for creating distributed and concurrent systems for modern Microsoft operating systems. If there's a book that will help you get a handle on the COM phenomenon, Essential COM is it.

Endorsed by object-orientation guru Grady Booch and Microsoft COM expert Charlie Kindel, Box's book takes the reader from an elucidating discussion of why a demand exists for COM and how it fits into the progression of C++ technology to a cool exhibition of some COM programs he's written. Along the way, Box covers the four corners of COM interfaces, classes, apartments, and security--all explained in developer's detail. He also gives attention to access control, marshaling, and Distributed COM (DCOM). Essential COM isn't an application programming interface (API) reference; it is an exploration of the Tao of COM. As the author says in his preface, you will figure out the how of COM programming quickly, as soon as you grasp the why.

Inside Com (Microsoft Programming Series)

Dale Rogerson

List Price: $34.99 By: Microsoft Press Amazon Marketplace: 14 new & used starting at $0.68

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> APIs & Operating Environments -> COM, DCOM & ATL
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Software Design, Testing & Engineering -> Object-Oriented Design

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 96 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The best way to *really* understand the fundamentals of COM 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This book begins by assuming the reader knows little more than basic C++. In the second chapter it introduces some simple C++ classes about which the reader will think to herself, "okay, this is simple". From there it builds: adding incremental changes to the original C++ code, gradually making it more useful, explaining each change as it goes. By the end of the book, the original example has grown up into a full fledged COM component, written completely from scratch. No wizards, no templates. At this point the reader will not only be able to recognize the elements of a COM component, but more importantly, she will understand *why* COM works the way it does. The mystery surrounding the ATL and Visual Studio wizards evaporates, and the developer can see them for what they really are: simple shortcuts.

Editorial Review:

COM (Component Object Model) forms the foundation of OLE and ActiveX as well as Microsoft's vision for componentized, distributed computing. Inside COM explains COM from the ground up, beginning with a lucid overview of what COM is and what benefits it offers programmers, then delving into the details of its actual operation. While Rogerson provides code samples in C++, the book isn't about C++ nor is it overwhelmed with program listings. Rogerson masterfully starts with a high-level view that doesn't get swamped in unnecessary detail then later fills in the gaps and addresses advanced topics. He offers just the right approach for programmers who might be intimidated by COM's apparent complexity.

.NET and COM: The Complete Interoperability Guide

Adam Nathan

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Home Computing -> Internet -> Web Browsers
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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Networking -> Data in the Enterprise -> Client-Server Systems

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The focus of the book is on COM Interoperability (since it's a much larger subject), and the heart of the discussion is broken down into four parts:

• Using COM Components Within the .NET Framework
• Using .NET Framework Components from COM
• Designing Good .NET Framework Components for COM Clients
• Designing Good COM Components for .NET Framework Clients

The scope of the book is just about everything related to using "unmanaged code" in the .NET Framework. Technologies built on top of COM Interoperability are also covered-Interoperability of Windows Forms Controls and ActiveX controls, Interoperability with COM+, and Interoperability with Distributed COM (DCOM). Although Platform Invocation Services is a separate technology from COM Interoperability, there are many areas of overlap, so including in the book is a natural fit. All of these technologies are a core part of the Common Language Runtime and .NET Framework, and will likely be used not only as the path of migration for existing software projects, but for brand new software development for the next several years.

Developer's Workshop to COM and ATL 3.0

Andrew Troelsen

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> APIs & Operating Environments -> COM, DCOM & ATL

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 52 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Microsoft’s Component Object Model is one of the most important concepts in software development today. Developer’s Workshop to COM and ATL 3.0 provides an in-depth treatment of COM and shows how to adopt a component framework, namely ATL, to help lessen the burden of repetitive code. Every chapter contains integrated lab assignments that give you numerous opportunities to build COM clients and servers using raw C++ and IDL, as well as the Active Template Library.

The book is divided into five sections, each focusing on a particular aspect of COM and ATL development. The book begins with a review of object-oriented and interface-based programming techniques, then moves into the core aspects of COM, including a full examination of language independence and location transparency. The author illustrates the numerous CASE tools used during ATL development and discusses apartments, COM exceptions, object identity, and component housing, in addition to various advanced concepts such as COM categories and tear-off interfaces. The fourth section examines a number of “COM patterns” such as enumerators, collections, scriptable objects, and callback interfaces. The book closes with an investigation of using ATL as a windowing framework and wraps up with the development of a full-blown animated ActiveX control using ATL.

The companion CD contains full source code for all the labs, along with the official COM and DCOM white papers.

Salesforce.com For Dummies

Thomas Wong

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Industries & Professions -> Customer Service
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> General
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Review Of The Reviews 3 out of 5 stars.
5 of 8 people found this review helpful.

I couldn't help noticing that there are 3 Five Star raving reviews of this book posted on the same day from Feb 6 2005 (Strange considering there are only 6 in total). I'm sorry but that is too coincidental making them suspect and of no use to someone like me who just wants an honest opinion from an objective reader.

Wouldn't recommend the Kindle Edition 2 out of 5 stars.
2 of 4 people found this review helpful.

If you're considering this title in the Kindle edition - think twice. There are numerous screenshots which are simply too small to read. Text can be enlarged on the Kindle, but images cannot. Stick with the paper edition.

Editorial Review:

* Shows sales people, marketers, and customer service representatives how to harness the power of Salesforce.com to enhance productivity, improve customer relations, and boost sales
* Salesforce.com, which has more than 147,000 subscribers at 9,800 companies worldwide, won InfoWorld's Best Hosted Application award in 2004
* Covers navigating Salesforce.com, managing leads, understanding customers and competitors, keeping track of contacts, creating a sales forecast, managing users, creating service and support e-mails, working with campaigns, using the report wizard, and more

ATL Internals: Working with ATL 8 (2nd Edition) (Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series)

Christopher Tavares, Kirk Fertitta, Brent E. Rector, Chris Sells

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> APIs & Operating Environments -> COM, DCOM & ATL
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Languages & Tools -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Active Template Library (ATL) is a set of small, efficient, and flexible classes created by Microsoft that facilitate the creation of interoperable components for developing Windows applications. The latest version of ATL is version 8, released with Visual Studio 2005. While .NET has been getting all the attention recently, there is still a huge base of installed COM/ATL code. Many programmers are dealing with difficult issues adding new .NET code to that installed base. At the same time there are many instances where ATL is still the superior choice for new applications - applications that have to run fast and efficiently on Windows, where the CPU doesn't have the memory or bandwidth to run .NET. This book will be a godsend to developers in both of those situations. As one tech reviewer put it, "Any programmer needing to transition ATL code to .NET will need this book." The first edition was widely praised, and sold close to 20,000 units. While ATL is no longer the cutting edge of Microsoft developer tools, there should still be a strong market for authoritative, complete, deep coverage of the newest version of this standard tool.

Distributed COM Application Development Using Visual Basic 6.0 and MTS

Jim Maloney

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> Distributed Databases
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Hardware -> Microprocessors & System Design -> Computer Design
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Microsoft -> Development -> VBA

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Written for the intermediate to advanced Visual Basic developer, Distributed COM Applications Development Using Visual Basic 6.0 ably demonstrates how VB can be used to write powerful, scalable distributed applications using the distributed Component Object Model (DCOM).

The book begins by contrasting traditional client/server computing with today's n-tiered architectures (including Microsoft's three-tiered Distributed Internet Architecture [DNA] approach). A general introduction to designing objects with Visual Basic follows in which the author enlists a case study for a video rental database. This includes a presentation of the best of user interface design in VB (including working with TreeView and toolbar controls).

You don't need to know much about TCP/IP to use DCOM, of course, but a section on this popular Internet protocol with the WinSock control provides some background material.

A full introduction to programming databases with ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) becomes incorporated into the video rental database example. After a quick look at ActiveX controls, the book provides an overview of COM, along with the benefits and potential risks of choosing between DCOM's (often perplexing) threading models.

After presenting material on object linking and embedding (OLE) Automation, the book zeroes in on creating DCOM components, data-aware VB objects with transactions and MTS, and real-world deployment issues with DCOM. These chapters provide a state-of-the-art guide to programming with Visual Basic in ways recommended by Microsoft.

Armed with these robust DCOM objects, the book next turns to the Web--first with ASPs and then with VB WebClasses for generating browser-neutral Web pages on the fly. (A final chapter looks at creating Active Documents out of VB forms for use with Internet Explorer.) In all, this practically-minded text provides a useful tour for real-world thin-client computing with VB and DCOM. The book assures that today's VB is all you need to write scalable, Web-centric distributed components and applications for the Microsoft platform. --Richard Dragan

Effective Com: 50 Ways to Improve Your Com and Mts-Based Applications (Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series)

Keith Brown, Tim Ewald, Chris Sells

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Microsoft -> Networking

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Effective COM opens with a chapter devoted to the migration from C++ to COM programming, presenting five "attitude shifts" that C++ coders need to undergo to program successfully with COM. It starts with a discussion of defining interfaces in the Interface Definition Language (IDL), and then moves on to a discussion of the unique distribution challenges of COM-based systems. The authors also discuss other differences, such as exception calls.

The next chapter presents tips pertaining to the all-important interfaces in COM. Both the big picture and some precise details are covered to help you implement your interfaces safely, as well as the implementations and the particular challenges that COM presents. The authors emphasize "defensive coding"--pointing out dangerous assumptions and offering suggestions for producing reliable components.

Apartments, security, and transaction management are addressed in succeeding chapters. As with the previous topics, they are handled via a series of specific tips and suggestions. If you're new to COM programming, you should read some more introductory texts first, but if you've already experienced your baptism by fire into the subject, this title can help ease future pain. --Stephen Plain

Delphi COM Programming

Eric Harmon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

COM Basics explained nicely....BUT.....Some Major Typos 3 out of 5 stars.
8 of 10 people found this review helpful.

This book has already added several nuclear warheads to my programming arsenal. It explained many concepts I have struggled with in a very explicit manner. There is a severe problem with this book however. I have already found errors in the code examples that have hindered my learning. The top code example on page 24, and on page 26 are good examples. On page 24, TObject was not typecasted as a TFormattedInteger and thus could not be casted "AS" an IFormattedNumber. It generated the compiler error described on page 25 even though I had a GUID declared in the IFormattedNumber interface. On page 26, MyInteger is incorrectly declared as a IFormattedInteger, even though no such Interface is declared in any of his other examples. I do not want to belittle this excellent book however. I just simply cannot give a book with these types of errors 5 stars when the writer obviously did not test every example he presents. It is definately still worth buying. I even suggest buying this in tandem with "Delphi4 Unleashed" by Charley Calvert because that book explains COM/Interfaces a little differently and can help you get the concepts faster by filling in some of the gaps. Hope this helps. Curtis S. Lead Programmer/Analyst Insurance Technologies Corp.

Editorial Review:

Microsoft COM is prevalent throughout Windows operating systems--95, 98, NT. To build applications which interface with Windows systems, therefore, programmers must understand and learn to use COM. This book will lay the groundwork for understanding COM, and focus on how to develop applications in Delphi which interact efficiently with Windows systems. The book will include coverage of DCOM, Microsoft's distributed architecture which is based on COM. It will also cover the latest developments in Delphi 5, currently due out in September 1999.This book will teach COM programming to Delphi 4 and 5 programmers. After providing an understanding of the COM framework, it offers a practical exploration of COM to enable Delphi developers to program component-based applications. Typical real-world scenarios, such as Windows Shell programming, automating Microsoft Agent, and creating and using ActiveX controls, will be explored. Discussion of each topic will be illustrated with detailed examples.