LEARNING DCOM - E-book - Multi-format

DCOM-the Distributed Component Object Model-is a recent upgrade of a time honored and well-tested technology promoted by Microsoft for distributed objects programming. Now that components are playing a larger and larger part in Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 2000, every Windows programmer will want to understand the technology. DCOM competes with CORBA as a rich and robust method for creating expandable and flexible components, allowing you to plug in new parts conveniently and upgrade without the need for code changes to every program that uses your component.
This book introduces C ++ programmers to DCOM and gives them the basic tools they need to write secure, maintainable programs. While using Visual C ++ development tools and wizards where appropriate, the author never leaves the results up to magic. The C ++ code used to create distributed components and the communications exchanged between systems and objects are described at a level where the reader understands their significance and can use the insights for such tasks as debugging and improving performance.
The first few chapters explain both the remote procedure calls that underlie DCOM's communication and the way DCOM uses C ++ classes. Readers become firmly grounded in the relation between components, classes, and objects, the ways objects are created and destroyed, how clients find servers, and the basics of security and threading. After giving you a grounding in how DCOM works, this book introduces you to the Microsoft tools that make it all easy.
By showing you what really happens each time you choose a button in a wizard, Learning DCOM makes it possible for you to choose what you need. Other important topics in the book include the Active Template Library, multithreading and apartments, creating and embedding an ActiveX control, and an introduction to COM + features. This book is for anyone who wants to understand DCOM. While thoroughly practical in its goals, it doesn't stint on the background you need to make your programs safe, efficient, and easy to maintain.