The Essence of COM: A Programmer's Workbook (3rd Edition)

Author: David S. Platt
List Price: $44.99
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ISBN: 0130165816
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR (11 May, 2000)
Edition: Paperback
Sales Rank: 328,077
Average Customer Rating: 4 out of 5

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Customer Reviews

Rating: 5 out of 5
I like this book
Aren't you fed up with 800-1000 pages books? This book explains more in less words and this is what personally I'm looking for; I have too many huge, thick books on my "to be read" list and I'm scared and stressed when I see them; I use this book as a COM refresher when I feel I loose the contact with the basics; I tried, for instance, to read an excellent book about COM+ (Transactional COM+, Tim Ewald), but I needed a COM threading refresher before tackling COM+ concepts. And I didn't need more than 2 hours to put order in things...


Rating: 4 out of 5
Good COM book for COM-ignorant programmer
I've graduated about 9 years ago. While in college I was programming on PC using assembly language, C, Pascal on DOS. When I worked I move on to Unix , programming and doing computer animation. After years on Unix, I feel that programming on PC is somewhat alien. So many has changed and a lot has to be re-learned and unlearned. "The Essence of COM" has filled in the gap, good book for anyone who needs to catch-up with the technology quickly. The reason it does not get a 5 star is that at times the sentences need to be edited by an english teacher (of course he/she must understand COM first).


Rating: 3 out of 5
Sketchy intro to COM
The author touts the book's simplicity and ease of use in learning COM. And the book does have a few nice block diagrams that show some client-server sequences in error handling, automation, etc.

But actually the book does not flow particularly well. Some of the examples aren't well drawn. Subjects such as enumerators, collections, callbacks, and connection points are either not covered at all or mentioned in passing within another subject. Other topics are covered in a bits-and-pieces style that doesn't quite explain.

I don't believe that a COM novice would get too much out of this book. Only a COM knowledgeable person could fill in the gaps that this book leaves. But that's not who the book is for.

I'll recomment "Developer's Workshop to COM & ATL" by Troelsen for anyone wanting to learn COM/ATL. That book ranges from basics to full-blown coverage. It is the best out there.

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· Developer's Workshop to COM and ATL 3.0

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