I want to learn COM. How should I proceed?

Question

I am a fresh graduate with a bachelor in Computer Science. As most school today, they are no longer teaching students C or advance C++ (only an Introductory course in C++... With lessons up to Pointers). The standard programming language prescribed in the curriculum is C# (.NET stack).

Just recently, I got hired as a junior software developer. 95% of our codebase is in C++ and our products are using COM/DCOM. The other 5% is in .NET. My current responsibility is to maintain a project written in .NET (ASP.NET) and I am not required to study C++ and other technology YET. But I want to learn COM as soon as possible so I can help out on other projects.

So I am seeking the advice of this community on how I can go about learning COM. My current questions are the following:

1. Any required reading? (Pre-requisite topics)
2. A Good Site in Learning the basics of COM?
3. A type of Simple Program to really appreciate the "purpose" of COM (A chat program perhaps?)

Thanks! :)

PS: Should I mark this as a community wiki?

Answer 1

There are plenty of content available online in msdn :-)

1. To Understand COM http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms680573(v=vs.85).aspx

2. To use COM http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms690156(v=vs.85).aspx

After reading these follow this tutorial for developing a complete end to end COM sample project ..

http://www.codeguru.com/cpp/com-tech/activex/tutorials/article.php/c5567/Step-by-Step-COM-Tutorial.htm

Answer 2

I have in my library these books on COM which I'd recommend:

1. 1995 - Kraig Brockschmidt - Inside OLE 2nd Edition
2. 1998 - Don Box - Essential COM
3. 1999 - George Shepherd - Inside ATL
4. 2000 - Andrew Troelsen - Developer's Workshop to COM and ATL 3.0
5. 2006 - Christopher Tavares - ATL Internals : Working with ATL 8, 2nd Edition

and if you say you have some .net background there's the

1. 2003 - Julian Templeman - COM Programming with Microsoft .NET

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

The book of Don Box about COM is the definitive reference. Amazon link.

Beware is a tough read, but it covers everything in deep. And remember, as Don said... COM IS LOVE.

I do not believe you can find a lot of web site, COM was a up to date technology a lot of time ago, but if you can forgot about it trust me... it's better!