Fundamentals of Component Object Model (COM) using C++
Call 644-6106, ext. 107
or
for course registration or more information
Overview
- The Component Object Model (COM) has become the
foundation of new Windows technologies. A good understanding of COM is vital to all
Windows programmers. This course gives the student insight into the design philosophies
and concepts underlying COM. A significant portion of the course uses C++ without any
frameworks to provide the student with a clear understanding of COM infrastructure. MFC
(Microsoft Foundation Class) and ATL (ActiveX Template Library) support for COM are also
discussed in the course. The emphasis in this course is to introduce the rationale for
various COM techniques to prepare the student for other classes which go into more detail
on using a specific framework like MFC or ATL.
The student will implement a COM object in a variety of ways including raw C++, MFC and ATL. At the end of the course the student will be able to understand the tradeoffs involved in choosing one of these frameworks. Extensive pictures, code examples and labs reinforce the concepts. The course concludes with a look at the future of COM including a discussion of Microsoft Transaction Server and COM+, a runtime infrastructure available next year which should considerably simplify COM development.
Course prerequisites
This course requires prior programming experience in the C++ language. Exposure to Windows API and MFC programming is desirable.Course outline
COM overview and rationale
COM clients - concepts
COM clients - Class Factories
COM Servers - Implementing a inprocess server
Interface Definition Language (IDL)
COM Servers - Implementing a Local Server, Standard and Custom marshalling
COM Servers - Aggregation and Containment
Automation & Type Libraries, dual interfaces
Persistence, Structured storage, IPersistXXX interfaces
MultiThreading & COM, threading models
COM & MFC
COM & ATL
Distributed COM
Microsoft Transaction Server
COM futures - COM+