--- product_id: 2731618 title: "Essential COM (Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series)" price: "€ 71.63" currency: EUR in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.es/products/2731618-essential-com-addison-wesley-object-technology-series store_origin: ES region: Spain --- # Essential COM (Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series) **Price:** € 71.63 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Essential COM (Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series) - **How much does it cost?** € 71.63 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.es](https://www.desertcart.es/products/2731618-essential-com-addison-wesley-object-technology-series) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Written by a leading COM authority, this unique book reveals the essence of COM, helping developers to truly understand the why, not just the how, of COM. Understanding the motivation for the design of COM and its distributed aspects is critical for developers who wish to go beyond simplistic applications of COM and become truly effective COM programmers, and to stay current with extensions, such as Microsoft Transaction Server and COM+. Box examines COM from the perspective of a C++ developer, offering a familiar frame of reference to ease you into the topic. Review: Still essential - 14 years after publishing, Essential COM is still essential for everyone who wants to fully understand COM technology. .NET replaced COM in many areas, but still, there are many libraries based on COM. Even the latest technologies like Windows Runtime (Metro) or Media Foundation are COM-based APIs. As the book title indicates, Essential COM covers (all) essential parts of COM technology you should know when working with COM. The book is NOT introductory text. In fact, you have to have same basics of COM before reading this book. Some step by step tutorial, or even better Step-by-step book should be considered as prerequisite before reading Box's text. Box tries to explain not just technology itself, but he also presents philosophy that drove designers of COM to design COM as it was designed. The book doesn't contain whole listing of source codes, nor step-by-step examples (showing how to create COM servers - for instance). Instead, there are short snippets of code you can incorporate to your own COM clients or servers (the reason why you need to know how to create COM server from scratch). But if you have basics of COM, the book is the great tool that will extend your knowledge. Especially coverage of apartments (one of the hardest parts of COM) is great. Using this book I filled many gaps. The only thing I don't like are those 'animal' examples. Interfaces like IApe, IDog or IPug are not very intuitive. The last remark. The book is completely valid under Windows 7. I compiled samples (my own, not from companion source) under Visual Studio 2010 for x64 CPU, and there were only minor changes I had to do (ProxyStub DLL for standard marshaler is linked with other LIB and you have to set x64 flag for MIDL compiler). PS: The book doesn't contain explanation of COM support in ATL or MFC. Also #import directive is not covered here. Review: Absolutely Essential. Outstanding book! - It is almost 2006 and I just read this book so I could delve into ATL Internals by Chris Sells. Some computer science books are timeless, and this one definitely qualifies. Don Box did such a great job with this book. It is very insightful and does a great job of explaining how COM works. Almost all of the COM development I did in the pre-.NET era was with Visual Basic, but I did have to use Visual C++ out of necessity once in a while. I wish I had read this book years ago. However, even after the fact, this book is a great read. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #524,873 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #1 in COM, DCOM & ATL Programming #1 in COM & DCOM Networking #145 in Object-Oriented Design | | Customer Reviews | 4.3 out of 5 stars 77 Reviews | ## Images ![Essential COM (Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71oWbi7bS-L.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Still essential *by T***A on August 10, 2012* 14 years after publishing, Essential COM is still essential for everyone who wants to fully understand COM technology. .NET replaced COM in many areas, but still, there are many libraries based on COM. Even the latest technologies like Windows Runtime (Metro) or Media Foundation are COM-based APIs. As the book title indicates, Essential COM covers (all) essential parts of COM technology you should know when working with COM. The book is NOT introductory text. In fact, you have to have same basics of COM before reading this book. Some step by step tutorial, or even better Step-by-step book should be considered as prerequisite before reading Box's text. Box tries to explain not just technology itself, but he also presents philosophy that drove designers of COM to design COM as it was designed. The book doesn't contain whole listing of source codes, nor step-by-step examples (showing how to create COM servers - for instance). Instead, there are short snippets of code you can incorporate to your own COM clients or servers (the reason why you need to know how to create COM server from scratch). But if you have basics of COM, the book is the great tool that will extend your knowledge. Especially coverage of apartments (one of the hardest parts of COM) is great. Using this book I filled many gaps. The only thing I don't like are those 'animal' examples. Interfaces like IApe, IDog or IPug are not very intuitive. The last remark. The book is completely valid under Windows 7. I compiled samples (my own, not from companion source) under Visual Studio 2010 for x64 CPU, and there were only minor changes I had to do (ProxyStub DLL for standard marshaler is linked with other LIB and you have to set x64 flag for MIDL compiler). PS: The book doesn't contain explanation of COM support in ATL or MFC. Also #import directive is not covered here. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Absolutely Essential. Outstanding book! *by S***E on October 16, 2005* It is almost 2006 and I just read this book so I could delve into ATL Internals by Chris Sells. Some computer science books are timeless, and this one definitely qualifies. Don Box did such a great job with this book. It is very insightful and does a great job of explaining how COM works. Almost all of the COM development I did in the pre-.NET era was with Visual Basic, but I did have to use Visual C++ out of necessity once in a while. I wish I had read this book years ago. However, even after the fact, this book is a great read. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Start Here *by M***I on January 5, 2014* If you want to learn COM, start here. If you have been using COM but never really learned it, like me, then start here to actually learn about COM. I had been doing so many things wrong. My coworkers had been doing many things wrong. And that is really embarrassing as we should know much better. So read this book. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.es/products/2731618-essential-com-addison-wesley-object-technology-series](https://www.desertcart.es/products/2731618-essential-com-addison-wesley-object-technology-series) --- *Product available on Desertcart Spain* *Store origin: ES* *Last updated: 2026-05-23*