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 create a COM component 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.