Essential IDL: Interface Design for COM (Developmentor Series (Dm)) - Softcover

Gudgin, Martin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0201615959 ISBN 13: 9780201615951

Verlag: Addison-Wesley Longman, Amsterdam, 2000

Inhaltsangabe

Virtually all COM projects should begin with IDL, because defining interfaces is the key to successfully designing any COM project. Essential IDL is the first book that focuses entirely on IDL, providing in-depth explanations of both the language and its applications. Essential IDL starts by explaining why IDL exists, what it is for, and what can be done with it. All aspects of IDL syntax are covered: basic interface definition, complex data types, array handling, marshalling issues, and more. From start to finish, the focus is pragmatic. Expert COM developer Martin Gudgin presents extensive IDL code samples and resulting C++, Java, and VB language mappings, demonstrating exactly how to use IDL constructs sensibly and efficiently in both client-side and server-side projects. Gudgin takes a top-down approach, starting with interfaces, then drilling down into simple data types, complex types, pointers and arrays; and finishing with aliasing and other esoteric IDL constructs. The second half of the book is a complete reference guide to all of IDL's data types, modifiers, keywords and attributes.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Martin Gudgin works at DevelopMentor, where he spends his time thinking about component software and related technologies. A Windows developer since 1987 and a COM developer since 1994, Martin has trained and mentored developers from a wide range of companies, including Microsoft, in numerous technical areas such as COM, IDL, MTS, and COM+.

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Von der hinteren Coverseite

The core language of Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM), Interface Definition Language (IDL), is an essential topic for all programmers working with COM. Essential IDL offers these programmers a detailed yet accessible description of IDL and its application to COM development projects. The book presents all of the various IDL constructs and offers insight into their purpose and function in interface definitions. In particular,Essential IDL focuses on IDL constructs that support the efficient marshalling of data as performed by the COM interception layer. Taking a top-down approach, this book opens with the basics of defining interfaces and then details data types, pointers and arrays, aliasing, and IDL support for asynchronous COM. Numerous examples of both server-side and client-side programming illustrate concepts and techniques throughout the book. Readers will learn about such key topics as:

• Generating type information
• Building proxy-stub DLLs
• Local and remote interfaces
• Primitive, enumerated, and user-defined data types
• Interface inheritance
• Top-level versus embedded pointers
• Object references and pointers
• Fixed arrays, conformant arrays, and SAFEARRAYS
• Multi-dimensional conformant pointers
• Method and type aliasing
• Asynchronous calls
• Client-side and server-side asynchrony

Also included is a comprehensive and concise reference to IDL built-in data types, modifiers, keywords, and attributes. This combination of comprehensive description, understandable explanation, convenient reference, and practical working guide makes Essential IDL an important resource for all COM programmers.

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Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

All developers targeting the Compound Object Model (COM) need a working knowledge of the COM Interface Definition Language (IDL). IDL is a reasonably complex language and can be quite arcane, and acquiring a knowledge of it has been an uphill struggle. This book provides a comprehensive description of IDL and how to use it, making it accessible and understandable. It takes an example-based, top-down approach, laying out the various IDL constructs, why they exist, what they are for, and how and when to use them in interface definitions. In each case, example IDL is provided and, where applicable, source code is provided for client and object in C++ and Visual Basic. The source code examples are not intended to be cut and pasted into existing applications; rather, they illustrate particular points about IDL and its relationship to client and object implementations.

This is a book about COM IDL and hence does not cover IDL keywords, attributes, or other constructs that are usable only from standard Remote Procedure Call (RPC). In addition, the most important parts of IDL are concerned with efficient marshaling of data as performed by the COM interception layer, and the majority of the discussion is based on the IDL constructs that affect the behaviour of that interception layer.

Foreword by Don Box, author of Essential COM
Type is everything.

This book describes the type system of the Component Object Model in greater detail than any other source I have encountered. More importantly, it details the current state of the Microsoft IDL compiler (MIDL.EXE), the tool used by COM developers to define new application-specific types for use in COM. In a perfect world, MIDL.EXE would perform exactly as expected. Unfortunately, we don't live in such a world. Fortunately, Martin has taken the time to document the darker corners of MIDL.EXE so that we all might avoid the more hazardous neighborhoods of [oleautomation] and /Oicf.

It is easy to dismiss a book on IDL at this stage in COM's evolution. With the Common Language Runtime about to revolutionize component development by replacing IUnknown and IDL with System.Object and integrated metadata, one could reasonably question the role of IDL in modern component development. However, given that type information is the key to integrating managed and native code in the Common Language Runtime, proper use of IDL today ensures that your COM components have a future in the forthcoming .NET world. Moreover, as long as key operating system components continue to be written in native (that is, unmanaged) code, using IDL and TLBs to access those components will be critical even after every application moves to C#.

While the Common Language Runtime may eliminate the need for a distinct interface definition language, the value of defining typed interfaces independent from the components they apply to remains equally relevant in the new world. In that sense, the spirit of IDL will live on long after the world has seen its last IUnknown-based interface. Until that day comes, we are fortunate to have this book to guide us through the syntax and semantics of COM IDL.

Don Box
Manhattan Beach
California
September 2000

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Addison-Wesley Longman, Amsterdam
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2000
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0201615959
• ISBN 13: 9780201615951
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 353
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: GS1 Slovakia; https://www.gs1sk.org; ; Nantersk� 23; Žilina; 010 08; Slowakei