Rating: 
Summary: Great Book for Mid COM crisis
Review: You've read a lot, you've built the samples, you've used the wizards, you can actually turn out components in C++, VB and maybe even Java, but you still secretly ask questions like "OK, but WHAT IS this so-called Apartment? WHERE is it?", or "so how does *IT* notice its reference count is zero?", or "WHO keeps track of threading models?". It that's the case, you have a nasty habit of wanting the world to make sense, and Essential Com is for you. Well-organized, with clear lucid prose, a sort of man to man discussion of the reasoning and the detailed implementation issues *behind* the wizards and templates. While rich in C++ code, this is not a paint by numbers cookbook, e.g. MFC and ATL are hardly mentioned. Get that elsewhere and come back here when you have gotten "productive" and want a crack at actually understanding what you're doing. This book is one of the current masterpieces, and you will read it cover to cover. In addition, it's reasonably priced and the pastel color scheme of the cover blends nicely with most bathrooms.
Rating:
Summary: A must read for serious COM/DCOM developers
Review: Developers should read this book to understand why and where to use COM technology. This book will help you understand the underlying technology. But unlike INSIDE OLE it does not go into the nitty gritty details.
Rating: 
Summary: About My Book...
Review: My lifestory (or at least the COM aspects of it) will finally make it into print this year. My sincere thanks to everyone who has been patiently awaiting this book. You can surf to my book's web page (http://www.develop.com/dbox/combook) for a table of contents and other relevant information
Rating: 
Summary: To cenceptual, not practical for a newby to COM
Review: The biggest problem I've had with this book is that the examples are incomplete. I am used to learning by starting with a basic program and implementing more and more features of the api step by step. In this I can ensure I have mastered the basic concepts before moving on. Unfortunetly this book does not use this technic. Although it starts with the basics and progresses, it does not have working examples of just the basic implementation. Therefore if you are confused by a particular section that does not have much practical code, then you are at a loss and will not be able to move on through the book since subsequent sections will be building upon the one that you may have stumbled on. Code snippets are just not enough for me to grasps the subject. There is a complete example downloadable from the book's website, but the example implements all of the advanced features, which is far to overwhelming for a COM novice such as myself.
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely Essential
Review: If you are already familiar with COM in C++, then here is a book that can bring your skill to the next level. For those of you who already own many many books on COM, your collection wouldn't be complete if you miss this one. This book continues on where many others left off. It digs deep down and explores the areas that are ESSENTIAL to your understanding of COM's intricacies. Many insights given in this book are rare, and you probably won't find it elsewhere. If you are already familiar with COM, here is a book that surprisingly still intrigue you on the subjects that you think you already knew. Though, I don't recommend this book for beginners. As the matter of fact, if I was new to COM and had to write a review for this book, I probably would have only given it 2 stars. It is not because the book is bad, it is simply that this is NOT one of those how-to-book. However, if your level is in the intermediate to advance, you will most definitely want this one. So, if you do decide to get this book, here is my tip for reading it. Don't try to read the book from front to end, for you may not find enough momentum to get pass the second chapter - that is, if you not into theory and all. Instead, just jump to the chapters that interest you the most. Also note the chapters near the end are very addictive, so you may want to start the book from there. This is how I "re-gained" the incentive to finish the book.
You welcome:)
Rating:
Summary: Best background COM book
Review: If you are a COM developer, you need (at least) two books on your shelf, "ATL Internals", and this one (Grime's books are pretty good too). After you start to dig around in ATL, you will see the heritage that came from this book. This is no mere regurgitation of MSDN, it is one of the works that blazed the COM trail, akin to Stroustups's C++ book. This is the best book to understand COM (all of it - like monikers) from the bottom-up.
Rating:
Summary: Very good theory based book
Review: I've been learning COM for a while starting out with VB, and then realizing the real COM developement is done with C++. I have learned all the ways to implement COM object but somehow didn't realize some of the reasoning behind it. This book will tie it all together, and use code to show you the hows and whys behind the theory. It is a great book for a intermediate level COM developer.
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Summary: Not for the typical programmer!!!
Review: This book is all about the nuts and bolts of COM. If you want to get under the hood and really learn how COM works, read this book. It is the standard used in learning how a COM application works and how to debug it if it doesn't. If you are a programmer with a deep desire to learn some low level APIs and a more thorough knowledge of COM, this is a MUST HAVE resource. To those people that gave this book bad reviews due to its lack of a "big picture" view of COM, they are right, do not come here if you are looking for any kind of picture, this book is a low-level technical guide for the REAL COM programmer.
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.
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