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Summary: THIS IS "THE" BOOK ON COM! LOOK NO FURTHER. BUY IT!
Review:
VB Com is the best book teaching Component Object Model on the market. It explains simply and elegantly the intracacies of using Com with Visual Basic.
After reading many software books, I find this and many other of the Wrox books to be the best choice for learning programming. They explain complex concepts in simple to understand language and instruction.
I now understand why Wrox books are the text of choice for many of the Computer Science classes at UCLA.
Thomas Lewis has found an avid reader and purchaser of any future endeavors he may publish.
Again, if you need to learn Com, please buy this book first. It will be well worth it, in time and money.
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Summary: Good book to get a background on COM/DCOM
Review: Although I have worked with COM objects for over a year, I needed this book to apply the correct terminology to many of the concepts that I had been dealing with. Another good book for WROX.
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Summary: Basic knowledge of COM
Review: Although this book was written over 3 years ago, it is still a good book for Visual Basic developers to learn COM. Microsoft wants you to think that everyone will be switching to Visual Basic.Net but the reality is there are a lot of Visual Baisc 6.0 shops out there and they have to support legacy COM components (ActiveX) for some time to come. Not all of those components are going to be converted to .Net. This book is a good starting point for any Visual Basic developers who want to learn COM including ActiveX DLLs and EXEs, ActiveX Controls, and Microsoft Transaction Server. The chapter on Microsoft Transaction Server could be a good step to COM+ on Windows 2000 and XP machines. Thomas Lewis takes you step-by-step from introduction to COM thru ActiveX components and finally thru Microsoft Transaction Server. He lays a good knowledge foundation and then with each succeeding chapter builds upon that knowledge. I would recommend that after you read this book that you follow it up the Peter Vogel's "Visual Basic Object and Component Handbook".
Rating:
Summary: Basic knowledge of COM
Review: Although this book was written over 3 years ago, it is still a good book for Visual Basic developers to learn COM. Microsoft wants you to think that everyone will be switching to Visual Basic.Net but the reality is there are a lot of Visual Baisc 6.0 shops out there and they have to support legacy COM components (ActiveX) for some time to come. Not all of those components are going to be converted to .Net. This book is a good starting point for any Visual Basic developers who want to learn COM including ActiveX DLLs and EXEs, ActiveX Controls, and Microsoft Transaction Server. The chapter on Microsoft Transaction Server could be a good step to COM+ on Windows 2000 and XP machines. Thomas Lewis takes you step-by-step from introduction to COM thru ActiveX components and finally thru Microsoft Transaction Server. He lays a good knowledge foundation and then with each succeeding chapter builds upon that knowledge. I would recommend that after you read this book that you follow it up the Peter Vogel's "Visual Basic Object and Component Handbook".
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Summary: Readable and thorough COM discussion for VB developers
Review: COM is a programmatic challenge in C++. Unfortunately many in-depth discussions of COM assume that you need to know all those pointer-level details. But as a VB developer, much of COM's interface complexity is handled automatically. Mr. Lewis approaches COM with this understanding.The text is readable and thorough. Its diagrams have been stripped down to the specifics of each discussion. Even the lollipop diagrams are understandable. (I easily forgive the barnyard analogies.) The author attempts to clarify rather than dazzle. He makes IUnknown feel more like a friend than a stranger. This is a worthwhile reference on its own, and a good supplemental text when studying for the VB Distributed (i.e., "VB COM") exam, 70-175. Its comfortable writing style belies a richness of content. The author's focus on his target audience is sustained and appropriate. No single book can cover everything (and you really don't want to see everything) about COM. If you wish to bathe in the ugly realities of COM from a C++ perspective, Prendergast's MCSD Solution Architectures book is painfully detailed, and mostly about COM. (I do not recommend Prendergast for 70-100 exam preparation, if you're a VB developer.) Weaknesses: Significant performance issues which relate to programming COM, DCOM and MTS are not addressed in great enough depth, nor with great enough emphasis. A good in-process COM object usually makes a dreadful object in MTS. Likewise, the critical need for custom marshaling of parameters to DCOM objects is slighted, as is the disastrous performance penalties of using collections. A word about errors and editing. In the publishing industry, most book manuscripts require 18 to 36 months to reach the bookshelf. For books on emerging (and rapidly changing) technologies, publishers have gotten the cycle down to an astounding 6 to 9 months. Hence, more errors. My experience with Wrox books is that the errors are few, and tend to be typographical. Their technical editors are among the most thorough in the industry. In this particular book, the occasional errors are inconsequential. Conclusion: If you are a VB developer who needs to learn more about COM, this is a solid choice. If you are a 70-175 exam candidate, read this book and enjoy that warm deja vu satisfaction after passing the exam. If you'll be doing COM with C++, buy a different book.
Rating: 
Summary: The book covers too much too little.
Review: Do not expect this book to help greatly with understanding COM. The book helps to get an idea of what you do not know instead of helping you to learn something. Some topics, such as MTS, MSMQ, DNA, and COM+ are bearly touched. Some parts of the book provide valuable practical information though.
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Summary: Review from Dev-Center.com
Review: Every VB programmer needs to understand COM, and VB Com by Thomas Lewis teaches you just that. It starts off with an introduction to what COM is, and its history. Subsequent chapters go in depth in COM components, such as Automation, ActiveX EXEs and DLLs, and ActiveX Controls. These chapters are very detailed and have several examples for each type of COM component. The DCOM chapter is especially interesting. It is one of few books that describe DCOM and its architecture, along with how to create VB applications that utilize DCOM. The number of pages is relatively small when compared to other Visual Basic books. Nonetheless, all 320 pages are choke-full of information, without all the jargon. I don't recommend this book for the beginner programmer. It is more for the intermediate to advanced programmer. Thomas Lewis's writing style is casual, which makes it easy to read and understand. Overall, it is the best book for learning COM with Visual Basic.
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Summary: excellent for starters
Review: I am new to VBCOM, and I think that Thomas Lewis did an excellent job at explaining the subject. It did not take me very long to read it, and I feel that I can go on to another book about the subject. One that is more into details, and has more information. It did the job though, of explaining the basics and behind the scenes functionality of VB COM. Thanks Mr. Lewis. Thanks WROX!
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Summary: Good as an INTRODUCTION. Overall Just OK!
Review: I am torn between liking this book for its style and excellent way of communicating the subject matter and disliking it for the lack of consistency. The book starts out with an "introduction" to COM in a way that would be more confusing than helpful for beggining programmers... I barely made it out after reading through a lot of "unnecessary" content for what was about to come. It seems, after reading this "introductory" cahpter, that the books was going to be at a higher level than what it actually was. The following chapters were excellent, easy to follow but maybe, just maybe way too basic. What I mean is that for a book at this "level" the author, for example, shouldn't have to explain what passing a parameter by reference or by value are and how they differ. Even though the book is an introduction to COM it shouldn't be an introduction to programming? and therefore these concepts should be assumed, and like this example I found more than a handful of other ones with similar tone Then the book takes a couple of interesting turns and covers alot of ground in a very short period of time, and does so very well. It essence I think it is a great book as an INTRODUCTION to COM, not appropriate for the Programmer to Programmer Series in my opinion. If you have a clear concept of what COM is and if you are looking for more of an implementation guide, you shouldn't look at this book. I finished it, because I started it!, otherwise it was just a nice review and an "entertaining" refresher course. After reading through the first couple of chapters I knew I wasn't going to find many nuggets of golden knowledge here. Additionally, as of this date, the book is a little bit outdated, but the concepts that it covers are always helpful in the learning process for newer technologies and even for competing ones.
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Summary: Excellent book! - Real Page Turner!
Review: I bought this book and the microsoft (COM) book at the same time. This book is very easy to read, gives excellent examples of theory, practice and technique. I guess from a nerdy standpoint, It reads like a novel. Wheras the Microsoft Book is a little too heavy.
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