COM in C

By Jeff Glatt

There are numerous books/examples that demonstrate how to use/create COM/OLE/ActiveX components. But these books typically use Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC), .NET, C#, WTL, or at least ATL because those frameworks have pre-fabricated "wrappers" to give you some boilerplate code. Unfortunately, these frameworks tend to hide all of the low level details from a programmer, so you never really do learn how to use COM components per se. Rather, you learn how to use a particular framework riding on top of COM.

If you're trying to use plain C, without MFC, WTL, .NET, ATL, C#, or even any C++ code at all, then there is a dirth of examples and information how to deal with COM objects. This book teaches how to use COM in plain C, without using any of the above frameworks. As such, it allows a programmer the fullest control over the minute details of implementing a COM component, is not confined to using any particular C compiler, and may be used to create custom COM frameworks including those that run upon platforms other than Windows.