The Active Template Library: A Developer's Guide

If one is looking for a book that discusses the arcane details of ATL COM, then this book is not for you. But the author does present a very good introduction to COM and ATL COM. He does it in a very orderly and easy to read manner. There is plenty here for the ATL novice. To show that the author presents more than help-file pablum, he digs into the class structure of ATL. I have never given a computer book five stars, but I do this time because the book simply has the right presentation and tone for an introduction. There are no statements that if the reader is not a C++ template guru, he/she has no business reading my book. Having rated the book highly, I will however state that more than one book will be necessary to learn the subject. But this a very good place to start.

This is the best tutorial book I've read on COM and ATL. Armstrong's explanations and examples are very clear and understandable. The only drawback is that the book is becoming a bit dated with the advent of ATL 3.0 in VC++ 6.

i read alot of COM books (inside com , essential com), all of them were great, but this book compare btw traditional COM and ATL, every chapter explains traditional com, and then how to use it using ATL. a lot of example and screen shots. good book for people who "affraid" of COM, just like i was ;-)

Tom Armstrong is a true teacher. Every concept was methodically introduced. From the basic COM construct to ATL support of it and, how client apps. might use it. I am particularly impressed with his approach of introducing (simplified) pseudo ATL codes first to enable me to understand a concept before looking at the real ATL generated codes. Definitely a recommended reading!

It reads like a novel. It has some mistakes here and there, but for the subject matter Tom Armstrong did a terrific job. If you know VC++, but don't know COM, or ATL, this is just the book for you man.