This is the first book dedicated to teaching MFC programmers what COM is and how to use it. It follows the proven ' by doing' format of Wrox Beginning Guides, and during the course of the book the reader develops a complete application from OLE servers and components. Who is this Book For? The book is aimed at Visual C++ developers who have an understanding of MFC application programming, but have yet to make the leap into COM. To aid understanding, it introduces and describes the lower level of COM in broad terms, but this book certainly isn' for those seeking a reference to that subject. Rather, it works through the excellent support that MFC provides to make it possible to write real COM-enabled applications as efficiently as possible. Beginning MFC COM Programming is an ideal second book for anyone who has read Ivor Horton' Beginning Visual C++ and been intrigued by the introductory material on these subjects contained therein.
What Does it Cover? This book uses the '' classes in MFC along with the Wizards in Visual C++ to create COM-enabled applications, complete OLE servers and ActiveX controls. It begins with an introduction to all these technologies in general terms, and then progresses to a more detailed investigation of COM, the technology that enables inter-object communication. This is explained in functional terms, highlighting where and why it' useful. A simple Automation example programmed in raw COM is then compared and contrasted with the same example using VC++ , to show how much easier the process is made by the tools VC++ provides.
The MFC '' classes are introduced and explained in detail as and when they are required by the discussion at hand, and then listed in full in an appendix.
