Rating: 
Summary: The Best
Review: As our company faced the daunting task involved with moving to the .net environment and getting it to work with com we felt challenged, to say the least. Mr. Nathan's book was essential to guiding us thru the forest.Thank you Mr. Nathan for a great book :)
Rating:
Summary: Well Worth the Money
Review: Currently, this is *the* reference book for the subject area of .NET interop with COM and other unmanaged code via P/Invoke. At almost 1600 pages, it can seem daunting but just treat it like a reference. Open up to the chapter that covers what you are interested in, such as "The Essentials of using COM in Managed Code" (chapter 3) or "The Essential of PInvoke" (chapter 18) or "Customizing COM's View of .NET components" (chapter 12). This last one is one of my favorites because it shows how you have more flexibility in writing COM components in .NET than you have with VB 6. Another thing I really like about this book is that it has lots of sidebars with tons of useful information that I haven't found anywhere (at least not easily) in the current .NET docs. Heck, even the appendix is chock full of good stuff like mappings between COM HResults and .NET exceptions and PInvoke definitions for the Win32 API.
Rating:
Summary: Can't believe it!
Review: I can't believe it! It is awsome book which I haven't seen any of COM book better than this before. I am not a professional programmer but after reading this book, I feel so good about my knowledge in windows programming and specially in the NET FRAME WORK. I bought a lots of Dot net books and still confusing about this new technology. But the ".NET and COM" is totally different. It clearly explains everything and giving the reader a really good concept. Eventhough, I haven't finished the book yet, but I can give the author 5 stars rate. Luckily, I bought this book with a cheap price and I 've got a huge information about COM and NET. I hope my future will get better cause of those information. Buy this book and buy "Applied the Net frame work" of Jeffrey Richter, you will not regret for what you do.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is not for c++ developers
Review: If you want to write in c# this book is for you. The author is very verbose.
Rating:
Summary: This book is not for c++ developers
Review: If you want to write in c# this book is for you. The author is very verbose.
Rating:
Summary: There is no other book covering a topic so well
Review: Moving to .NET doesn't mean throwing away your COM code. Integrating the 2 worlds (managed and unmanaged) is achieved via COM Interoperability and there are 2 main scenarios:
1. Writing .NET clients that use COM servers
2. Writing .NET servers to be used by COM clients This 1500 pager is split into 9 parts containing 24 chapters and 6 appendices. In my opinion, the heart of this work lies in parts 2-5 (650 pages, 14 chapters) that thoroughly detail how to write perfect .NET components for COM clients, COM components for .NET clients, .NET clients for COM components and COM clients for .NET components. Trust me (and anyone that has read this book), there is absolutely nothing else left to be said about the topic. The remaining 3 parts cover PInvoke (talking to Win32 dlls), advanced topics such as custom marshaling and two comprehensive examples. The quality throughout is of the highest level. It is a joy to read and full of technical information, a lot of it not found anywhere else. Own this book and forget the online help or any internet sites when it comes to interoperability. The examples used throughout the book are not overly complex or academic or basic; they are just right. Such a balance is hard to strike. What is also hard to find is a book that treats both VB & C++ developers equally. Many authors will benefit by reading Nathan's writings to learn how to achieve that. Whether you plan to write C# or VB.NET code and whether your COM components were written in C++ or VB6 you will not feel left out or bored going through the chapters. Although large, it can be read linearly and it will definitely serve as a reference text on your shelf. I particularly enjoyed the sidebars (categorised as FAQ, Digging Deeper, Tip, and Caution) which are full of golden information. I could go on praising it but suffice to say that it could easily be sold with money-back guarantee and not a single book would be returned.
Rating:
Summary: There is no other book covering a topic so well
Review: Moving to .NET doesn't mean throwing away your COM code. Integrating the 2 worlds (managed and unmanaged) is achieved via COM Interoperability and there are 2 main scenarios:
1. Writing .NET clients that use COM servers
2. Writing .NET servers to be used by COM clients This 1500 pager is split into 9 parts containing 24 chapters and 6 appendices. In my opinion, the heart of this work lies in parts 2-5 (650 pages, 14 chapters) that thoroughly detail how to write perfect .NET components for COM clients, COM components for .NET clients, .NET clients for COM components and COM clients for .NET components. Trust me (and anyone that has read this book), there is absolutely nothing else left to be said about the topic. The remaining 3 parts cover PInvoke (talking to Win32 dlls), advanced topics such as custom marshaling and two comprehensive examples. The quality throughout is of the highest level. It is a joy to read and full of technical information, a lot of it not found anywhere else. Own this book and forget the online help or any internet sites when it comes to interoperability. The examples used throughout the book are not overly complex or academic or basic; they are just right. Such a balance is hard to strike. What is also hard to find is a book that treats both VB & C++ developers equally. Many authors will benefit by reading Nathan's writings to learn how to achieve that. Whether you plan to write C# or VB.NET code and whether your COM components were written in C++ or VB6 you will not feel left out or bored going through the chapters. Although large, it can be read linearly and it will definitely serve as a reference text on your shelf. I particularly enjoyed the sidebars (categorised as FAQ, Digging Deeper, Tip, and Caution) which are full of golden information. I could go on praising it but suffice to say that it could easily be sold with money-back guarantee and not a single book would be returned.
Rating: 
Summary: Comprehensive interoperability book
Review: Often finding an appropriate and effective bridge to .NET is a time consuming and problematic task, we had to do a lot of research and benchmarking to find an optimal solution. Having this book by Adam Nathan will save time and effort on building these bridges.
The material in the book is intended for use by experienced professional developers, it's certainly not an entry level tutorial, but the author's style, detailed description supported by examples makes it easy to read and follow. A short introduction to .NET and managed code concepts is provided in the first section of the book. I discovered, however, that this book may be helpful to the people who have no previous COM knowledge, due to the very descriptive and illustrative style.
The author clearly has an extensive experience of COM and a good knowledge of Microsoft .NET. That's why the material is not just an abstract presentation, but a systematically organized guide, focused on potential problems and difficulties a developer may face. However, it is still only focused on COM/.NET interoperability, most probably I would need another book about Java, CORBA working with .NET. The book, as already mentioned, is not an introductory or general conceptual tutorial on programming or architecture, but a very detailed and comprehensive interoperability reference, and it is definitely worth its price. Also the length of the book, about 1600 pages is well justified. Another positive side of the book is that examples are written in VB, C# and managed C++.
Rating:
Summary: The cards were stacked against it. It came out good.
Review: The book is 1608 pages - 50% more than a James Michner book. It's published by Sam's. What more could it have against it?
Yet it's a good book. If you're talking between .Net and COM it's got the information you need. Any chapter you open it to has good, readable information when you feel like browsing. It lies flat on a table when opened. What more could you ask for in a book?
Definitely worth the price.
Rating:
Summary: A highly recommended instructional and reference
Review: The focus of .NET and COM: The Complete Interoperability Guide is on COM Interoperability, and the heart of the discussion is broken down by computer expert Adam Nathan into six parts: Using COM Components In .NET Applications; Using .NET Components in COM Applications; Designing Good .NET Framework Components for COM Clients; Designing Good COM Components for .NET Framework Clients; Platform Invocation Services (P/ Invoke); COM+ and DCOM in the .NET Framework. The scope of .NET and COM includes all aspects of using "unmanaged code" in the .NET Framework. Technologies built on top of COM Interoperability are also presented including: Interoperability of Windows Forms Controls and ActiveX controls; Interoperability with COM+; and Interoperability with Distributed COM (DCOM). Although Platform Invocation Services is a separate technology from COM Interoperability, there are many areas of overlap, so including it in .NET and COM is a natural fit. All of these technologies are a core part of the Common Language Runtime and .NET Framework, and will likely be used not only as the path of migration for existing software projects, but for brand new software development for the next several years. .NET and COM is a highly recommended instructional and reference for intermediate level users. 1608pp.
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