Essential COM

Amazon.com

The Component Object Model (COM) is deep and extremely difficult, making it impossible to grasp the ideas behind this specification quickly or easily. Don Box, the author of Essential COM concedes that it took him six months of reading documentation, writing programs, and experiencing general puzzlement before he had his personal COM epiphany. Nonetheless, if you're a C++ programmer and you want your skills to continue to be relevant in a PC market dominated by Windows 95 and Windows NT, you need to get going down the path toward your own COM enlightenment. COM is the tool of choice for creating distributed and concurrent systems for modern Microsoft operating systems. If there's a book that will help you get a handle on the COM phenomenon, Essential COM is it.

Endorsed by object-orientation guru Grady Booch and Microsoft COM expert Charlie Kindel, Box's book takes the reader from an elucidating discussion of why a demand exists for COM and how it fits into the progression of C++ technology to a cool exhibition of some COM programs he's written. Along the way, Box covers the four corners of COM interfaces, classes, apartments, and security--all explained in developer's detail. He also gives attention to access control, marshaling, and Distributed COM (DCOM). Essential COM isn't an application programming interface (API) reference; it is an exploration of the Tao of COM. As the author says in his preface, you will figure out the how of COM programming quickly, as soon as you grasp the why.

Book 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. As the COM programming model continues to evolve, such insight also becomes essential to remaining current with extensions, such as Microsoft Transaction Server and COM+. By showing you why Distributed COM works as it does, Don Box enables you to apply the model creatively and effectively to everyday programming problems.

This book examines COM from the perspective of a C++ developer, offering a familiar frame of reference to ease you into the topic. You will also find comprehensive coverage of the core concepts of Distributed COM (interfaces, classes, apartments, and applications), including detailed descriptions of COM theory, the C++ language mapping, COM IDL (Interface Definition Language), the remoting architecture, IUnknown, monikers, threads, marshalers, security, and more. In addition, the book offers a thorough explanation of COM's basic vocabulary, provides a complete Distributed COM application to illustrate programming techniques, and includes the author's tested library of COM utility code.

Customer Reviews:

no source code.......2007-07-27

I read Essential COM almost 10 years ago, and revisited it recently, out of curiosity. It's tough sledding, but if you *must* know this stuff, this is probably it.

However, throughout the book the phrase "the source code that accompanies this book" occurs repeatedly. As far as I could ascertain after an hour or so of googling and searching, there *is* no such source. I assume it stopped working 5 years ago or something, and rather than continuing to provide it somewhere on the web with a disclaimer -- which I assume would be embarrassing to Mr. Box -- it has been silently "disappeared". I consider this mildly unethical, and certainly annoying, since many perhaps minor points are supposedly demonstrated by this non-existent source.

A must read book for learning COM.......2007-06-16

I have learned a lot with this book. I would not qualify the book an introduction book because unless you have some background knowledge and practice, you are going to find the last chapters hard to digest. What the book does is to covers the essential principles of COM with great details. This will make the first reading very interesting and it will make you come back from time to time to seek back specific detail.

Buy this book FIRST when you want to learn Microsoft's Common Object Model.......2007-03-21

All vetran C++ programmers should learn this along side MFC, it assumes a minimal knowledge of COM so it is easy to pick up, and gets you familiar with the common elements of this widely used standard (CLSIDs, IIDs, COM Functions, etc) Shell programmers will want to read this first. See my other reviews for more good books in COM.

[in, unique] IBindCtx *pbc.......2007-01-12

The basic idea of COM as a binary standard that supports querying for supported interfaces and object lifetime through reference counting could hardly be simpler: five pages, End of book! So why does it turn out to be so complicated in practice? Evil enters in various ways and threatens to become overwhelming: the need to work efficiently with remote servers across a long wire, to implement effective security, handle various threading models (those wretched apartments!), marshaling (ugh!), proxies and stubs (yuck!), the need to just plain find things such as class ID's in the registry (another palpable evil), global interface tables, problems of COM identity, and so on and so on. Control of object lifetime through reference counting turns out to be a quagmire -- which references should be counted, external or internal or both, or does it just depend? Thanks to smart pointers retrofitted to legacy applications, aggregation, and the niceties of internal and external QI, it can be a nightmare to find and remove reference counting bugs. To top it all off, COM doesn't even accurately report reference counts -- only zero and nonzero can be trusted. Because of all this, no hard and fast rules for good COM programming can be given, just general guidelines that won't always apply.

What started out as simple and elegant gets twisted all out of shape. Nevertheless, although what we have now is truly disgusting, it either works or can be made to work, more or less. It's not Box's fault that modern software development has become a can of worms, and although it would be an interesting exercise to reexamine Windows, say, -- or Unix, or whatever -- from the ground up and rebuild it "optimally" with no regard for back-compatibility, no one is likely to do this.

Box starts out with a beautiful discussion, the best I have seen, of the underlying rationale behind COM. You can think
of Chapter One as COM before the Fall. The rest of the book deals with COM after the Fall -- that is, how COM is forced to deal with the actual world into which it was born through no fault of its own. He gives an advanced, top-down view of the subject. To understand the book you will need a solid grasp of multiple inheritance and of C++ in general and should have had some prior experience with COM, otherwise you'll find the more advanced topics unmotivated and undigestible. As with any nontrivial programming paradigm, if you already have the kind of first-hand experience that's been gained the hard way by running afoul of a variety of pitfalls, you will be ripe and ready for a treatment at the level of Box's book.

If you are not ready for this book there are other places to start, such as Grimes' book called DCOM Programming (Wrox Press). For instance, Box assumes the reader knows what marshaling does; he never explains what goes on inside the wire. The closest he comes is in the listing on p. 222 for the IRpcChannelBuffer, where the comment "payload goes here" appears after a void *Buffer. Yes! Yes! We want to see the payload! Grimes' book will fill these gaps. But Box is very strong on programming techniques and strategies that may save your butt in certain urgent, if limited, circumstances.

This is a book for advanced programmers that describes COM in the real world, probably as well as it can be described, warts and all. Given that programmers, not excluding the best ones, are known for their struggles with their native language ("so that the user can click *their* mouse on ..."), the excellence of the writing comes as a pleasant surprise. Probably the editors at Addison-Wesley did a really crack job cleaning up Box's manuscript and making everything shipshape. But conceivably Box was able to do this on his own, too. That would be really impressive given his superb job in organizing and explaining the technical material.

good COM book.......2006-11-08

If you have good understanding of C++ concepts and Windows programming, this is a great book for learning COM technology. Currently, I am on Chapter 3 and I liked the approach with which Don teaches you all the pieces of COM.

The Trouble Begins: A Box of Unfortunate Events, Books 1-3 (The Bad Beginning; The Reptile Room; The Wide Window)

Average customer rating:

A Warning
great seller
The Trouble Begins, Books 1-3 by Lemony Snicket
Major let down.
The Trouble Begins

The Trouble Begins: A Box of Unfortunate Events, Books 1-3 (The Bad Beginning; The Reptile Room; The Wide Window)
Lemony Snicket , and Brett Helquist
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 006029809X
Release Date: 2001-10-02

Amazon.com

Fans of Lemony Snicket and newcomers to his gleefully ghastly Series of Unfortunate Events will be elated to discover this boxed gift set of the first three books in hardcover: The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room, and The Wide Window. While it's true that the events that unfold in Snicket's novels are bleak, and things never turn out as you'd hope, these delightful, funny, linguistically playful books are reminiscent of Roald Dahl, Charles Dickens, and Edward Gorey. After they get their paws on this boxed set, there is no question that young readers will want to read the continuing unlucky adventures of the three Baudelaire orphans. (Ages 9 and older) --Karin Snelson

Book Description

The first Series of Unfortunate Events gift/box-set of this New York Times best-selling series.

The set includes The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room, and The Wide Window.

Customer Reviews:

A Warning.......2007-07-26

If you are thinking of reading this review, first be forewarned that it contains very little happiness in it at all. Inside the pages of the books that this review reviews, you will find such terrible things as orphaned children, a greedy villain out to steal a fortune, an incompetent banker (the word 'incompetent' here means, 'unable to protect or even remotely assist the Baudelaire orphans in their attempts to avoid the evil Count Olaf'), a murdered relative, a harmless Incredibly Deadly Viper, the reappearance of a villain, a widowed, phobia-ridden aunt (phobia-ridden here meaning, 'an aunt too afraid to touch the doorknob, use the oven, or be near realtors'), a library devoted entirely to grammar, a house that teeters on its foundations, and leeches. Clearly, if you had any sense at all, you would not wish to read about such things.

If you do, however, chance to pick a volume up, be sure to drop it as quick as you can, kick dirt over it so no one else can find it, and run in the opposite direction. Because if you do pick it up you will find, to your horror and misery, that the tales recorded within are most definitely unsuited to such a person as you. Tales of a fortune-stealing man named Count Olaf out to get a trio of clever and incredibly unlucky children are not, I am sure, the sort of thing you would enjoy. So I recommend that you purchase another book, perhaps a volume by Lenoy M. Setnick entitled THE PONY PARTY, the first of his series called THE LUCKIEST KIDS IN THE WORLD!, which can be found by purchasing Mr. Snicket's unauthorized autobiography in hardcover and turning the dust jacket inside out.

A very good day to you.

Rating: Very Good

great seller.......2007-01-23

thank you so much

excellent quality and good condition

thanks

The Trouble Begins, Books 1-3 by Lemony Snicket.......2007-01-19

Our grandkids really enjoy Lemony Snicket. Our granddaughter doesn't read yet, but our grandson loved the books.

Major let down........2007-01-07

I bought these books (actually the first three box sets) on the recommendation of a friend. But I messed up, this was not what she said. I muddled through each of the 9 books because I will not give up and feel it would be a waste of my money to throw them away. But truly, I would have rather spent my time getting a root canal, or being anally probed by aliens. These books are horrible! He warns you, but you figure it's in jest and there will be a point, or an upside to them. There's not. The movie however, is entertaining. Go figure. Check them out from the library if you're really that curious, but don't waste your money.

The Trouble Begins.......2006-09-11

The Trouble Begins contains the first 3 books in the Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events books.

#1 - The Bad Beginning
#2 - The Reptile Room
#3 - The Wide Window

In the Series of Unfortunate Events isn't a happily ever after kind of story. There are three regular children:

Violet, who loves to invent
Klaus, who loves to read
and Sunny who loves to bite

Violet is the oldest, Claus the middle child, Sunny is the youngest.

The book "The Bad Beginning" is the basis for the first part of the movie. The story begins when the Baudelaire children are informed by Mr. Poe, a banking accountant, that their parents have just been killed by a mysterious fire, and thus begins a series of search for a suitable guardian and a safe place to live. The siblings closest member to their parents is supposedly Count Olaf, only he's not nice. He's exactly the opposite and he plans to steal the immense fortune left by the Baudelaire parents.

In The Bad Beginning, things, well, begin badly for the three Baudelaire orphans. And sadly, events only worsen in The Reptile Room. As the siblings move in with their new guardian Professor Montgomery, they find he is a reptile scientist. In a room with many different reptiles, there's a newly discovered reptile that he called a deadly, dangerous snake. But it's not really dangerous at all. Later Montes get a new assistant and it is Count Olaf in disguise. Of course something terrible happens to Uncle Morty after that and Count Olaf again tries to kidnap the children.

In the Wide Window, Mr. Poe places the children with a distant relative, Aunt Josephine. Aunt Josephiine lives in a house on the edge of a hill, a house that is very literally above Lake Lachrymose, a lake infested with Lachrymose Leeches who would eat a human if they smelled food on them.

Aunt Josephine is as eccentric as other relatives have been. She's a total grammar freak and so scared of every thing that the children have to live in a cold house and eat cold food because their aunt is afraid of accidents with fire. When Aunt Josephine meets Captain Sham who (who is Count Olaf in disguise), good fortune turns bad. Aunt Josephine dies and the apparent cause of death is jumping through the wide window in the living room, leaving the three children to Captain Sham (who is Count Olaf in disguise).

As the orphans try to figure out a way to escape from Count Olaf, they discover their aunt is still alive and in hiding. So they set out to find her and convince her to come back. This eventually leads them out onto the dreadful Lake Lachrymose where Count Olaf and the dreaded leaches catch up with them.

Though overall being sparse on detail and description, the books are fun reads.

Programming in Visual Basic 6.0 Update Edition with CD

Average customer rating:

Programming in Visual Basic 6.0
good service but need better packaging
A good investment
Excellent book to start VB6.0
Great book for beginners.

Programming in Visual Basic 6.0 Update Edition with CD
Julia Case Bradley , and Anita C Millspaugh
Manufacturer: Career Education
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Accessories:

ASIN: 007251874X

Book Description

Intro Programming course is estimated currently at 150-200,000 and growing. Visual Basic is taking over where BASIC, Qbasic, and QuickBasic once dominated, in the Introductory Business Programming course. That trend will continue as VB continues to encroach on other less progressive languages such as COBOL and the Basic variations listed above within CIS and Business departments. The courses that can be supported by this text are not specific to any one type of institution, since VB in a Business course is largely a functional topic needed by all types of students from 2-4 year, to Vo-Tech, to extended, to even adult education.

Customer Reviews:

Programming in Visual Basic 6.0.......2007-03-12

I NEVER ordered this book but you sent it and charged me for it anyway. I returned it upon its arrival but had to go to extreme hastles to communicate with you people. Have you re-embursed my account yet? That's the first time I've ever had a problem with Amazon, but I still love you.

good service but need better packaging.......2005-10-04

the book was received in a good, timely manner at a cheap price
at a fraction of the cost of a new book, i am doing all my assignments and learning more about vb
the only thing that would need improvement is packaging
a cd came along with this book but since the packaging was done in an envelope it was broken in half which has prevented me from doing work at home
otherwise, this is a good seller and would deal with them again if they improve their packaging
thanks

A good investment.......2004-08-03

Concise, precise and with hands-on examples of entire projects. This book is scattered with coloured screenshots to illustrate their instructions so you never have to guess what the authors mean. Targetted at the absolute beginner (in programming) but as it is a breeze to read, the more advanced reader is sure to pick up a few VB gems on his stroll through it.

Excellent book to start VB6.0.......2004-05-26

I was lucky to stumble across this book in Amazon.com and didn't really know what I was getting. Once reading through the first chapters and trying some of the exercises I realize this is great. The book teaches you the correct way to program in simple descriptive language. I have now leant what I need to start my own small projects and have ordered the Advanced VB6 from the same authors, looking forward to getting it. The book also comes with the learning VB6.0 CD which gets you started.

Great book for beginners........2002-12-18

When i purchased this book it was because i had to for a college course but i was already an intermediate programmer. Although i already knew most of the contents of the book, i couldnt help but notice if i had bought this book when i was first starting out i would have saved so much time and money. When i started i purchased 2 books one of them being from the **** for dummies collection which i would highly vote against doing and the other was too technical without enough explanation. This one is highly detailed and step by step, after each chapter it gives you a full rundown of the code with detailed notes. If your serious about learning VB6 i dont know of any other book out thatll get you programming well in such a short time.

Building Solutions with the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework: Architecture and Best Practices for Mobile Development

Average customer rating:

A great book that will help you on your next mobile project
Just about the worst compact framework book
Great book for technical managers, not for developers
Two Heavy Hitters write a great book

Building Solutions with the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework: Architecture and Best Practices for Mobile Development
Dan Fox , and Jon Box
Manufacturer: Addison-Wesley Professional
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0321197887

Customer Reviews:

A great book that will help you on your next mobile project.......2005-09-06

The Fox and Box dynamic duo have created a wonderful book that really explains how to be sucessful with your Compact Framework projects. The chapter on Localization saved me a lot of time when needing to make a large-scale Compact Framework application world-ready for a current client. This chapter alone is worth the price of the book. Go get it!

Just about the worst compact framework book.......2005-04-28

I purchased 8 books when decided to jump from VB6 to Pocket PC programming with VB .Net. Some were good and some were bad. This book rates at the bottom of the list. I found absolutely no value in the information provided. Just about every other book was better written and provided more information.

I returned the Book.

Great book for technical managers, not for developers.......2004-05-30

This is a well written book with a nice overall structure and easy-to-follow language. Each discussion starts with an executive summary and ends with references to other resources for further reading, thus making it a very straightforward read. I will not enumerate the subjects covered, since you can do that by looking at the contents table.

Although the title tells us this is a .NETcf book, you should pay attention to the subtitle, as the topics of architecture and general advice on mobile development are also covered at considerable length. This may or may not please you, depending on your role. For example, the chapter on security includes general theoretical principles on the topic but omits examples of using the Cryptography API. We notice this in other parts of the book, and in fact the first chapter is a pure retrospection into the history of mobile devices as supported by Microsoft. Add to my previous comments that the book is only 350 pages long and the fact that there are no complete/end-to-end code examples, and you can see why it is not aimed at programmers. To be fair, the authors don't hide this and they state in their preface that the target audiences are technical managers and architects.

Like anything that goes to print, there are some errors including: the recommendation of using ResEditor (it simply does not work with the CF); the suggestion that C# is 100% compatible between desktop and compact frameworks (what about `volatile'?); and the claim that the class loader ignores the build & revision number (or that for private assemblies the version number is not consulted), which is not true. Overall, though, the content is correct and for technical managers this is probably the best book on the subject (but certainly not for developers). Finally, a small note that there is no mention of SmartPhone 2003 since the writing must have been completed prior to its launch (or indeed prior to CE 4.2).

Two Heavy Hitters write a great book.......2003-12-05

As an avid Compact Framework enthusiast, I buy every book on the CF that I can find. As you may be aware, there aren't a whole lot of them out there, but they are all really good. This one is no exception. If you do much with .NET, then you probably know these authors already, and they lived up to their reputations with this one!

Why would you want this book? Well, most importantly it really explains the Why's of Compact Framework development. There really are a lot of considerations and while the CF is very similar to the full framework, there are a lot of differences. As a developer, this book thoroughly explains what you are getting into and how to avoid many common mistakes. However, even if you are a non-technical person this book will prove to be a great asset if you are involved in decision making. After all, who wouldn't want a mobile presence for their company? Well, like everything else, it comes with some strings attached. In most instances they are trivial compared to what you get. In others they may not be. Architectural considerations are critical because you are dealing with limited battery life, smaller processors and memory and reduced real estate. It's also a lot easier to lose a PDA than it is a desktop and since many of the advantages of using Handhelds are only realized when you have wireless access, issues like bandwidth and security can make or break any mobile initiative.

I think the best part of this book is its theoretical focus. It's very easy to run off and start coding, forgetting architectural concerns. In these instances, many find that getting a great little app that works great in a test environment isn't so good once you get it into production. This book can help you minimize the chances of that happening. Furthermore, it gives you a very sober perspective on what you will need to deal with. Due to the fact that the CF has only been commercially released for under a year, and PDA development hasn't been a practical reality for more that a few years, there just isnt' that much literature out there. And this book's focus on architectural issues and HOW TO Deal with them effectively will prove how hip the authors really are.

Book Description

Readers incapable of running fast enough to escape Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events can breathe a sigh of relief now that the first six books of the series have been securely contained in a shrink-wrapped box disguised with exquisite Brett Helquist slip case art that will prevent this collection of woe from falling into the wrong hands.

Customer Reviews:

Unfortunate & Fabulous.......2007-01-09

This beginning series is great...it got me totally hooked to get the remaining books...a Harry Potteresque obession...fun reading, a great escape!

Can It Get Any Worse?.......2006-04-07

When I first started reading this series of books I was set back a little because these stories are not written in the style of typical children's books. These stories are dark, and the evil characters are truly evil. A number of reviewers have panned this series because they are dark, and because they often push the boundaries of what some of us may find acceptable for children to read. It is because of the dark imagery that I have typically recommended that age 9 be a minimum age. Some children may be unprepared for these books until later.

In the first three books in this series we learn that the three Baudelaire children, Sunny, the baby, Klaus, her brother, and Violet, a young teen, have lost their parents in a terrible fire. The children are sent to live with their evil uncle Olaf, who has ulterior motives yet to be revealed in later books. The children quickly learn how evil he is, and ultimately escape. They next go to live with their uncle Montgomery Montgomery in "The Reptile Room," only to be forced to move on again. In "The Wide Window" the children live with an aunt who is afraid of everything, only to ultimately be forced to move on again, continually chased by the evil Count Olaf in a variety of disguises.

In "The Miserable Mill" the Baudelaire orphans have moved to another relative, this one the owner of the Lucky Smells Lumbermill in the rundown town of Paltryville. The children toil in the lumber mill from the time they arrive in Paltryville. Soon they have splinters and are tired and hungry, because they get nothing for breakfast, almost nothing for lunch, and casserole for dinner. There are multiple labor and child abuse laws violated in this book, but perhaps it might make some readers more appreciative of what they have.

As has happened in the previous three books, the children are able, principally through their own efforts, to overcome the bad guys. Once again the children are on their way to another home.

Of the four books thus far, this one was my least favorite. The style of the books is such that bad things happen to these children on a regular basis, but in this book it seems as though bad things are happening to nearly everyone. This book is very depressing. I was also a bit annoyed with the extremes that the author went to in his exaggerations.

The fifth book in the saga implements several changes, all for the better. We are at Prufrock Academy, a boarding school, instead of with a relative. Secondly, the Baudelaires acquire two friends at this new school. There are additional positives. They actually get to eat, they get to study, and they get to read. For a moment you might actually think that things are looking up for the Baudelaires. Ah, but for those familiar with the series, you know that can't be true.

If the Baudelaires violate any of a series of bizarre rules they must endure a series of equally bizarre punishments relating to their meals. Included in this list of punishments is loss of silverware, loss of a cup, though you still get your drink, it's just in a puddle on your tray, and even having your hands tied behind your back at mealtime.

As you have probably also guessed, Count Olaf does eventually show up, but does not immediately try to kidnap the children. The children try to figure out his scheme all the way up to the point where he does execute his scheme, and I can say no more or you will miss all the fun.

In "The Ersatz Elevator" the Baudelaire orphans move in with a non-relative in a penthouse apartment. While you might think that a penthouse apartment (which has something like 71 bedrooms) and kitchens, and sitting rooms, and on and on, would be a lovely place to live, you would be thinking wrong.

This time the problem is that Esme Squalor (the sixth most important financial advisor in the city) and her husband Jerome must have everything "in". Esme must go to only the "in" restaurants; she must wear only "in" clothes, which includes the children, and on and on. Unfortunately, being "in" also means multiple compromises in terms of comfort. For example, the penthouse is on the top of a building with 66 stories, and elevators are "out". So the Squalors and the Baudelaires must walk up and down the 66 stories each time the go in to and out from the building. They certainly received sufficient exercise. Before I forget, orphans are also "in".

Of course, we know that Count Olaf must eventually show up, and he does. However, there is a mystery. We find that Count Olaf went up to the apartment and did not later leave the building. Therein lays the crux of the mystery for this story.

This box set is a great way to collect this series if you have found that you like the unconventional way the Lemony Snicket has written these books. I recommend them cautiously, and principally for children 8 or 9 or above.

The Window Box Gardening Book: An Inspirational and Practical Guide

Average customer rating:

A beautiful and handy guide

The Window Box Gardening Book: An Inspirational and Practical Guide
Anne M. Halpern
Manufacturer: Quarry Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1592530591

Book Description

Don?t have a lot of room for gardening? Live in the city with only a balcony or less to grow a garden? Then this is the book for you. This book resurrects the art of window box gardening. From formal arrangements of evergreens and classic flowers to delicate romantic plantings, The Window Box Gardening Book offers an extraordinary range of design for every environment.

Here are charming country window boxes, sophisticated urban plantings, special gardens for sun and shade, and dazzling arrangements that highlight fragrant flowers and edible hers and blossoms. With practical information on every step of window-box gardening, more than 100 evocative color photographs, and a directory of plants, this is a beautiful and definitive guide to window-box design.

Customer Reviews:

A beautiful and handy guide.......2004-06-07

The Window Box Gardening Book: An Inspirational And Practical Guide is a straightforward instructional to window box gardening, which involves little labor, makes greenery a part of the home environment, and promotes the enjoyment and pleasure of gardening to city and country dwellers alike. Full-color photographs illustrate the straightforward text that covers everything from selecting the right containers and plants, to three classic styles of window box gardening, tips on preparing for seasonal changes, extensive instructions and troubleshooting tips, and much more. A beautiful and handy guide that even the most novice plant grower can appreciate.

Effective COM: 50 Ways to Improve Your COM and MTS-based Applications

Average customer rating:

Effective COM: 50 Ways to Improve Your COM and MTS-based Applications
Keith Brown , Tim Ewald , and Chris Sells
Manufacturer: Addison-Wesley Professional
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0201379686

Amazon.com

Effective COM opens with a chapter devoted to the migration from C++ to COM programming, presenting five "attitude shifts" that C++ coders need to undergo to program successfully with COM. It starts with a discussion of defining interfaces in the Interface Definition Language (IDL), and then moves on to a discussion of the unique distribution challenges of COM-based systems. The authors also discuss other differences, such as exception calls.

The next chapter presents tips pertaining to the all-important interfaces in COM. Both the big picture and some precise details are covered to help you implement your interfaces safely, as well as the implementations and the particular challenges that COM presents. The authors emphasize "defensive coding"--pointing out dangerous assumptions and offering suggestions for producing reliable components.

Customer Reviews:

From Bad to Worse: The Story of the Baudelaire Orphans.......2006-04-07

Average customer rating:

Excellent activities that parents and kids can do together.
Great book, wonderful ideas for the kids.
First rate introduction to world of window box gardening!

The Window Box Book
Karen Fausch
Manufacturer: Little Bookroom
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Board book

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ASIN: 0964126230

Book Description

Drawing from her teaching experience, Karen Fausch has designed 12 irresistible and sure-to-succeed window box gardens for children to plant and cultivate. Each has a theme and related activity. For example, the Jack-Be-Little Box has mini pumpkins and instructions for carving initials that grow as the jack-o'-lantern does. By following the simple instructions, children will learn gardening skills they can use for a lifetime, including how to mix potting soil, fertilize, water, control light and temperature, and identify insects.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent activities that parents and kids can do together........1999-05-21

There's a lot of projects here, covering a broad range of activites -- everything from planting a pizza box (growing ingredients to put on a homemade pizza) to a Halloween spook box. My daughter has really enjoyed the projects we've worked on. The illustrations are charming.

Great book, wonderful ideas for the kids........1999-05-18

What a terrific book with great ideas for my kids and I to do together. The tussy-mussy is a must do.I enjoyed it as much as they did.I wish there was more.

First rate introduction to world of window box gardening!.......1999-04-30

Children will be thrilled with this how-to book on creating your own unique window box garden. Fun for the entire family. Includes great chapter on edible flowers.

500 Essential Container Plants: Window Boxes, Balconies, Patios

Average customer rating:

500 Essential Container Plants: Window Boxes, Balconies, Patios

Manufacturer: Rebo International Bv
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Ornamental Plants | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 9036617030

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