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Rating: 
Summary: Essential but o horrible..most horrible
Review: A much maligned book from what I read in other reviews here. But still this book is an essential OLE reference book. You will however need a basic understanding of COM and OLE/ActiveX before plunging into this book. Definately not for a first timer. Inside COM is a far better introduction to COM and even D.Kruglinski's chapters on OLE/AxtiveX should be read first. However once you have a good grasp of COM and OLE than the authoritive detail and depth of this book will come into play. The examples definately need improvement though.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Good book.
Review: I feel this is a must book for any one dealing with OLE. It delas with both COM and OLE. For COM alone, there are other books "Inside COM" and "Essential COM".
Rating:
Summary: Important for understanding the underpinnings of COM
Review: I tend to agree with most of what is said in previous reviews. The tome could have been easier to read. You really must pay attention to every word written. Personally, I ignored everything relating to C.Inside OLE 2nd Edition is not for you if you want to jump write in and code with MFC and especially the ATL. Much of what Mr. Brockschmidt discusses is encapsulated within the ATL. But any developer worth his salt knows that debugging and even everyday coding depends on a solid understanding of what's going on underneath. This book definitely gives you that. I studied IO2E with that in mind. I have no intention of hand coding coclasses from scratch, but absorbing the material presented in the book makes learning ATL a whole lot easier. Surprisingly, I found the book not dated at all even though the notion of ActiveX did not exist at the time of writing. Just about everything that one would currently do with COM today is in the book and still applies 100%. For a d! eep understanding of the reasoning behind COM and how to use it, I have not read any better explanations. There is a lot of information out there on how to build a COM interface, but not much on what to do with it once you have built it. I really gained a lot of insight on how to build systems using interfaces and "object hierarchies". If you have the time, I would suggest to read Inside OLE 2nd Edition and then move on to Inside COM. Following that you can tackle the ATL. If not, Inside COM is still an excellent first step. In any case, the book makes a valuable desk reference. It really is the "bible" so-to-speak.
Rating: 
Summary: Was a good book but...
Review: much has happened since. This is now looking dated. This was *the* original book on OLE, however, with the subsequent advent of COM, COM+, ActiveX, ATL and .NET means that this book is now something of a period piece. However, the underlying concepts still exist in the majority of PC installations and applications in use today (although expect that to diminish in coming years). OLE (later to become COM and later COM+) had some wonderful, ground-breaking features from an architectural perspective but often the implementation details were very ugly (the Registry, GUIDs, non-unique interfaces, reference counting, etc.). Fortunately, .NET seems to have captured all of the good points, very few of the bad points of OLE, COM, COM+, Java, C++ and VB.
Rating:
Summary: Was a good book but...
Review: much has happened since. This was *the* original book on OLE, however, with the subsequent advent of COM, COM+, ActiveX, ATL and .NET means that this book is looking very dated. However, many of the underlying concepts still exist in the majority of PC installations and applications in use today (although expect that to diminish in coming years). OLE (later to become COM) had some wonderful, ground-breaking features from an architectural perspective but often the implementation details were very ugly (the Registry, GUIDs, non-unique interfaces, reference counting, etc.). Fortunately, .NET seems to have captured all of the good points, very few of the bad points of OLE, COM, COM+, Java, C++ and VB.
Rating: 
Summary: The worst book ever written
Review: Read "Inside COM" or "Essential COM". There was once a time when you couldn't find a book on the subject. Now you can. Avoid this book.
Rating:
Summary: The best you can find, for the details of COM and OLE
Review: There was a time when this was the only book that could be had that covered things you needed to know to write apps that handle OLE enough to pass VeriTest. Thankfully there are newer books that explain COM and controls much better. I still have to break out this book every now and again because OLE is still required. Mr BrockSchmidts writing style is very difficult to read and the code samples are extremely outdated. I suppose no other books on OLE have really come out because it is assumed that MFC will deal with many of the weirdnesses of OLE. That is unfortunate because MFC apps are HUGE bloated creatures that do NOT implement all the OLE functionality needed to get a fully functioning OLE application. On the positive side, it is definately a cure for insomnia.
Rating:
Summary: The best you can find, for the details of COM and OLE
Review: This book is undoubtedly the best one you will find for the details of COM and OLE. Comment for some of the other reviews: I think it is too bad that because one's lack of ability to read English at a higher-level that you lambaste the author - shame on you, get a dictionary! Brockschmidt needs to provide an update on this text, until then you will have to make do with what we have at this time -- if indeed you can find a copy. As for me, my own will stay in my library for reference!
Rating:
Summary: Very useful
Review: This foundational bible is a good desk reference. Chapter one summarizes the remaining chapters, and is therefore a good starting point for the uninitiated. Once a topic has been perused in chapter one, it can be studied in the specialty chapter.
Rating:
Summary: This book is good after you know COM
Review: This was a book I disliked when I was a COM beginner. But after I know basic concepts and write a lot of COM/OLE codes, this book begins make sense. It is a serious book for experienced COM programmer. I think the author should update his examples which could not compile on VC6++ so we can debug into his codes and understand his examples better.
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