Volume 1 of this series examines COM from a client perspective. Volume 2 crosses the client-server boundary and takes a look at COM from the server side.



This volume reviews the differences between inprocess and local servers. A complete raw C++ example for an inprocess server is provided and analyzed.



This example distills several textbook chapters worth of COM programming material into a few easily understood slides.







Interfaces in COM are specified using the Interface Definition Language or IDL. IDL can be confusing and obtuse at first look. This volume provides the rationale for using IDL and short concise examples which illustrate the use of IDL.



MIDL is the compiler used to compile IDL files. This volume provides a description of the files generated by MIDL.



COM provides a notion of apartment to handle multiple threads. This volume provides a clear concise explanation of this often misunderstood concept.

Different types of apartments and inprocess server threading models are discussed. The process of calling across apartments and different threading scenarios are discussed with animations.





The two mechanisms to reuse COM objects are aggregation and containment. This volume discusses the differences between these 2 techniques and provides graphical overviews of these two techniques.