Thread: Learning COM

  1. #1
    Funniest man in this seat minesweeper's Avatar
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    Learning COM

    I am interesting in learning how to use COM. Can anyone recommend any good books on the subject? I have searched on amazon and it returned these . The number one result looks to have some good reviews and is quite reasonably priced, has anyone read this one?

    Thanks

    EDIT: Ok, seems the link didn't work. The number one result was 'Essential COM: Building Distributed Objects Using C++ and OLE (OBT)' if anyone has any experience of it.

  2. #2
    It's full of stars adrianxw's Avatar
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    You're link gives me an error so I can't comment.

    I believe one of the best COM+ book is "COM+ Programming from the Ground Up" by Mike Michaelis.

    COM as a technology is rapidly ageing, and in a year or two would regard as a legacy technology, if it is not already so. If you want to go that way anyway, that is not a bad book.
    Wave upon wave of demented avengers march cheerfully out of obscurity unto the dream.

  3. #3
    &TH of undefined behavior Fordy's Avatar
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    My com experience was found from;

    Inside COM - Rogerston
    Inside ATL - Shephard
    Programming Windows with MFC - Prosise

    ..and a hell of a lot of trolling variou sites (most noteably MSDN)

    Its true that com is aging, but as so much stuff still uses it (ADO, Windows Shell, ActiveX, Microsoft Office etc..) it's worth knowing IMO

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    Funniest man in this seat minesweeper's Avatar
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    Ok, I didn't realise COM was ageing, it's just I see a lot of jobs that consider COM knowledge to be desirable and also questions on this board that require COM knowledge in the solution.

    Basically I want to really further my knowledge and ability in Win32. I have Programming Windows (Charles Petzold) and have worked through and applied it's content, however I haven't touched upon MFC. Would this be useful? Really what I am asking is where is the best route to go from here? Is COM to be replaced? Has it been replaced? With what has it been replaced? Should I learn COM as a basis of any new technology or is it irrelevant?

    I'd really like to start preparing myself for the job market (graduate this June) and if you could give me some pointers on the best route to take I would much appreciate it.

    Thanks

  5. #5
    It's full of stars adrianxw's Avatar
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    Given what you've said, I think I would learn MFC. There are many houses that use it because it supposedly speeds up the development process. Jeff Prosise's book "Programming Windows with MFC" second edition is your book there.

    I would also look at some web programming, it is one of the few areas where there are jobs available at the moment.

    The entire industry is on a downer at the moment. Even experienced professionals are finding it hard to find jobs, and the competition is tough. The brorder your skill set the better.
    Wave upon wave of demented avengers march cheerfully out of obscurity unto the dream.

  6. #6
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    Excellent. thanks Adrian.

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