Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 552 pages
- Published by: Microsoft Pr February 1998
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 157231849X
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-1572318496
-
Book Dimensions:
9.2 x 7.5 x 1.5 inches
- Weighs: 2.5 pounds
Product Review
Although
Microsoft's Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) is one of the most widely used component standards in the computing industry, it has a well-deserved reputation for being rather difficult to master. While many tools (such as Visual Basic) let programmers use DCOM without understanding how it works, C++ and Java programmers who need to know more will want to turn to
Inside Distributed COM. This surprisingly readable reference mixes enough technical detail with actual source code drawn from C++, Java, and Visual Basic to show how DCOM really works.
The authors start out simply, identifying the basics of COM running on a local machine, and run through the essentials of what COM objects are and how they promote reuse. They present the basic interfaces of COM and discuss the philosophy of COM's object design regarding containment and aggregation. (Although COM does not support inheritance, it can simulate such relationships in other ways.)
After laying the theoretical groundwork, the book features several great nuts-and-bolts chapters that demonstrate how COM works in several
programming languages: C++ (including the Active Template Library), Java (which hides many of the details of COM programming), and Visual Basic (which makes using COM transparent to programmers). The short examples drawn from each language show how COM is an essential part of the
Microsoft programming languages and tools.
The book moves into more of the technical aspects of COM, such as automation (for scripting COM components), connection points (for event handling), monikers (for identifying COM components regardless of their location on the network), and marshaling (which lets objects send data between objects). The authors mix in a useful amount of theory while consistently holding the reader's interest. A chapter on threading models (a difficult topic) is also particularly clear, and the authors even provide their "ten commandments" for threading models--rules that show when to use single or multiple threading apartments.
Later chapters discuss distributed computing and the problems that need to be solved as COM moves to distributed systems. These chapters include the advantages to in-process servers versus stand-alone processes in distributed architectures and a full discussion of the
Microsoft Interface Definition Language (IDL), which allows components to talk to one another.
The book closes with new technologies, including how developers can benefit from using
Microsoft Transaction Server for robust transaction management and how the emerging COM+ standard will add even more to the mix, with services that rival CORBA for enterprise-wide distributed computing.
Inside Distributed COM may be the best guide to understanding COM, whether you are running it on a single machine or multiple machines. The authors succeed in highlighting what you should understand about this important technology in order to become a more effective developer or information services manager.
Dr. Dobb's Electronic Review of Computer Books
Read the full review for this book.
There are a number of things I particularly liked about
Inside Distributed COM, starting with its quick background explaining the road to DCOM from RPC and OLE. Another thing I liked is that the source code presented in the book is rigorously cross-language. Finally, I especially liked that the authors kept the focus of the book on the core DCOM technology, and didn't mix it with the specific technology that may lie behind a specific programming tool such as Visual C++/ATL, Visual J++, or Visual Basic. In addition, looking at the same technical aspect from two or more points of view, often far different, can only help in forming a more precise idea of how it works and the power it can give you.
--Dino Esposito, Dr. Dobb's Electronic Review of Computer Books
Reader ReviewsThis is the best book on the subject I have read yet. It is not for the beginner and is pitched at explaining the underlying principles--which it does remarkably well. The discussion of the DCOM/RPC network protocol is great as is the chapters on threading and apartment models. As a whole this book is much better than the WROX books, in my opinion. Plus it doesn't suffer from the problems that press has with breaking code examples into 3-line snippets that obscure the whole picture.
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