Rating: 
Summary: If you're mediocre stay away!
Review: This book will teach you the low level API of COM, so if all you want to do is use the wizards, go somewhere else!This book will bring you to a level sufficient not only for applying COM to your applications, but also for implementing it from bare scratch (actually from C++ and the WIN32 API)! Thus this book is more like a software engeneering book with a concrete model in mind. Despite of what I said above, I do think that this book will give you concrete working knowledge with COM but you must read the whole book cover to cover before it does, as this book will tell you on a command only when you are ripe to UNDERSTAND what it does. For example, the function CoInitialize is not mentioned, even not in a hint, up until chapter 5 (out of 7 chapters), even though almost no other COM API function will work before you called that particular function! This book is still relevent in the days of COM+ and .NET as it is more then a simple user manual. Further with this book (read cover to cover) you don't need anything else to use COM althouth you do need other books for COM+ and .NET. In short, if you are above average read this book.
Rating:
Summary: You don't know COM development until you have read this book
Review: Read it! Read it again! Come back to it a few months later and read it again! There is so much to understand about COM and this book gives you the information to do that. Hmmm! What else to say? Well, considering Microsoft sends their own developers to DevelopMentor to learn about COM, what more can one say? DevelopMentor was co-founded by Don Box and is probably the premiere training facility for Microsoft technologies and COM in the entire world.
Rating:
Summary: An oasis in the desert
Review: After I had spent months trying to get to grips with COM, this book was like an oasis in the desert. Suddenly so much that had been opaque or confusing all made sense. The book explains the concepts behind COM. If you prefer books full of code examples, cookbooks that tell you what to do rather than why then this is not the book for you. But if you want to understand the reasons COM is like it is (and this surely is the best way of learning any technology - through deep understanding, not by parrot-fashion copying of example code), then this book is ideal.
Rating:
Summary: For those whom are already familiar to COM.
Review: This book is not for newbie. This book is for people already familiar to COM and ATL prgramming.. COM is hard..Yes it's fairly hard..I'll bet.. I spent at least 6 months for understanding COM, COM+ and ATL. Although I think I'm familiar to Windows, I'm not sure how much I understand about COM, COM+. Now as I recall all that effort in these 6 months, I found all the books and tutorials are not well-arranged. Though they are saying about same thing, it really sounds different.. I recommend to read the review of "Inside COM" in amazon.. There is a review by a canadian reader of the book. He explains about the order of reading about COM and I agree on him much. And about this book, I think as "Essential" to COM.. This is a great book about COM essentials.. Read about Free-Threaded Marshaller. This proves the author's deep insight to COM architecture. It's to say, that this book argues about essentials about COM. So does not fit to newbies. When you feel deeply impressed by this book, that's when you almost get in touch with COM essentials.. It's little shame to say, I myself can't really understand all the stuff in this book either.. Remember? COM's way is Hard to go.
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Summary: Cornerstone COM Text
Review: I bought Essential COM about two years ago, and have since purchased and read other COM texts. I can say with certainty that if you want to start learning COM, this should be your first or second book on the topic. However, don't expect to be able to run out and start working with COM after reading the first few chapters. This is a very theory-oriented book aimed at developing a thorough understanding of COM, with few code-oriented examples that are used for explanation rather than demonstration purposes. The writing can be dense at times, but this is more a factor of the book's topic than the author's writing style. The text requires knowledge of C++ and a desire to learn something new. If you buy this book and don't understand what you're reading, try reading Chappell's Understanding ActiveX and OLE before returning to Essential COM. But by all means, this book is one of the best treatments of COM available.
Rating: 
Summary: I was disappointed :-(
Review: The book is a collection of technical notes and not a learning book. The author tries to show every little detail but forget about explaining the global idea behind it. There is no connection between parts and there is no writing technique that leads you into understanding. I got the feeling the author was more busy of showing how much he knows and less about trying to explain things to the reader. This book is "nice to have" but only after someone else show you the meaning of COM.
Rating: 
Summary: esoteric and lengthy
Review: This book is esoteric. It isn't practical. I recommend something else.
Rating:
Summary: King of IUnknown
Review: Don Box is a very knowledgeable author. It is a great book, contains many great examples. Everthing you ever wanted to know about IUnknown is in this book. I am a student and it was a very easy reading.
Rating: 
Summary: If are not a C++ expert look away now
Review: Assuming you are a C++ expert and you want to learn about COM then this is the book for you. After you read it though, get a book on ATL to learn how to do COM with C++. This book (along with Inside COM) are fundamental to an understanding of COM from the C++ perspective but in reality you need ATL to become productive.
Rating:
Summary: Become COM Lord because COM is Bomb with Box
Review: This book <CANNOT> be understood unless you know Standard C++ fluently cold. Almost every piece of implementation block instructions in the book require a commanding understanding of templates and the Run Time Type Identification language features. There are a lot of COM books at the book stores like Dale Rogerson's Inside COM, which is more of a simpleton tutorial, now I had that book but for some reason I felt that the explanations of that book where too Sesame Street. Rogerson's book is good and I do not want to bash it but with Essential COM this book makes wanting to read any other book on COM wasted time, and as you would learn C++ from Stroustrup, the definitively reliable source, the same courtesy is applied to Don Box. You awkwardly feel safe and secure with the teachings of Box. The training that this book gives you is unbelievably detailed and presise, giving you a certain arrogance and swagger upon the books completion, because as he states it a C++ COM programmer is the smartest and most skillfull programmer in the developers circle. Don Box Essential COM is also a tutorial contrary to belief, but because it is exhaustively detailed, it also serves as keyboard side COM reference without the cold and dry syntax of most reference manuals. This book is classic and worth every penny. The mentality to spend on this book is what will the ramifications be once I really understand the COM model, and program in it effectively? Can you say humongous pay raise? How about jolting you marketability as a developer ten fold? It definitely has its place as tutorial but Don Box's book explains how COM can be used as a better C++. How is that? Box explains that in writing standalone binary implementations C++ without COM has its purpose without any influence, but should we really expose to much information about the class in the header files? He explains as you will read, that COM promotes interfaces, not class state exposure. He penetrates his dominance of COM throughout the book that COM exposes only what the client programmer using the interface should only be concerned with, the interface. And the details of how COM objects handle the responsibility performing the required service is in the implementation. Box explains in exhausting detail about the lack of the Standard C++ run-time class loading as opposed to Java which does support run-time class loading and COM now paired with C++ allows that feature. He really makes you understand COM theoretically, fundamentally that you can truly master COM with this book. This is the best programming book I have read. This book writing style is clear, the author Don Box clearly demonstrates his Lordship over the COM. The word is that Visual Basic programmers wanting to learn COM will get the concepts but will be lost with the implementation samples, this book is aimed at serious C++ programmers, but Java programmers will learn a great deal from Effective COM. If you want to hear what COM is and how it is used from Don Box himself, go to the Dr.Dobbs URL, ddj.com, click on Technetcast on the left margin, and look at bottom of page for Visual C++ Developers Conference 1998 archive real audio/video hosted by Technetcast Phillipe Lourier, or search for Don Box and it will come up with the segment to be played. This streaming video segment is invaluable and you get to see and hear Don Box talk about the need for COM and how COM compares with CORBA, Java, and how to use it to make you a superiorly better C++ progammer. Oh, yeah ahhh, buy this book if you want to learn COM, be a master of COM, be a Lord of COM....
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