Understanding Activex and Ole

Rating:
Summary: Astonishing...
Review: This is an excellent book that no programmer should ever go without. Read at least 3 times, and then buy Dale Rogerson and Don Box. EXCELLENT EXCELLENT EXCELLENT introduction to Microsoft's technologies that implement their vision of a document centric system. Microsoft does nothing anymore without using COM/ActiveX/OLE. You must learn this technology if you trully want to become a real hardcore programmer. So what are you waiting for.

Rating:
Summary: great book for a high level understanding of COM
Review: This is one of my favorite books. This book gave me an excellent understanding of COM architecture. It's concise and has just the right amount of info. If you are looking for a ready made set of code sample to cut & paste in your project or if you are more interested about 'how' than 'why' of COM then this book is not for you. I have recommended this book and also lent my copy to many. I couldn't keep the book down. An excellent read. David Chappell has done a great job!

Rating:
Summary: good overview for techo-savvy newcomers
Review: Well written (despite an occasional tendency to bang Microsoft's drum); programmers should read this, and use it as a road map, before diving into the technical details. See the Sept'97 issue of "Doctor Dobbs" for a fuller review, which is available on-line at: http://www.ercb.com/ddj/1997/ddj.9709.html

Rating:
Summary: A great high level view of COM/DCOM
Review: When I purchased this book, I had no clue what COM/DCOM was, besides maybe what the initials meant. This book did a nice job of easing one's understanding into COM. I think this a great book whether you are a project manager just trying to get a clue, an experienced programmer trying something different, or a newbie. This book is a solid high-level beginning for learning COM. If you want to have a better understanding of COM, buy this book. If you want to learn how to code COM components look for a good VB, C++, or Java book.

Rating:
Summary: A great high level view of COM/DCOM
Review: When I purchased this book, I had no clue what COM/DCOM was, besides maybe what the initials meant. This book did a nice job of easing one's understanding into COM. I think this a great book whether you are a project manager just trying to get a clue, an experienced programmer trying something different, or a newbie. This book is a solid high-level beginning for learning COM. If you want to have a better understanding of COM, buy this book. If you want to learn how to code COM components look for a good VB, C++, or Java book.

Rating:
Summary: Must Read for any Microsoft Developer
Review: Whether you are a developer, manager, DBA, or system administrator you need this book. This book explains so much in such a short time. It saves you lot of time.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent: top-down overview, hi-level, yet highly technical
Review: With hardcore VC++/MFC background, I was looking for introduction into the new world of ActiveX, COM/DCOM, MTS, etc. My last attempt at understanding OLE was Inside OLE 2 ( Kraig Brockshmidt), and that was way too detailed. Chappell's book is technical enough for for the reader to form a useful conceptual framework which s/he can then start filling in using other more detailed works

Rating:
Summary: Great high level introduction to COM and ActiveX
Review: Without a line of code in the text this books presents a high level overview of COM, ActiveX, OLE embedding and more.

If you need to learn and understand COM and ActiveX I can not think of a better introduction.