I'm always suspicious of a book from an author I hadn't heard of before and ordering it online didn't help. Within the first couple of pages I was sure I had bought a rehash of everything I had read about COM in so many other books during the last yearand a half. Seeing the many pages of printed code, while I 'fan previewed' the book convinced me that this was the 'filler' of a lightweight. But this was not so. By page 50 Mr. Harmon was clearly taking me places I hadn't been and by the end of the third chapter, I knew that this book would fit nicely between Danny Thorpe and Ray Konopka on my programmers bookshelf.
Eric explains COM from a perspective familiar to a Delphi programmer and doesn't waste time teaching OOP 101 as so many other books of the genre. He starts each new area on friendly turf to a typical delphi programmer, creates a framwork, and builds on that structure to explain rather complex concepts quickly and effectively. I found his method of teaching comprehensive and thorough - yet demanding. If you aren't already reasonably comfortable with OOP than you still have a little more homework to do before you move onto COM. But it'll be here when you are. Even a general understanding of interfaces, com and dcom would be advisable though though he does review the basics briefly. But then he quickly moves through interfaces and drills down into levels that I hadn't encountered and I'm not yet at page 100. About a third of the way through chapter three and I knew I was on the clock - that this book would pay for itself in no time.
I must admit that I am only into Chapter 5 now but did catch a peek of all to come. If you are a reasonably seasoned programmer and want to move on to COM with the rest of the Windows programming community, this is how you do it. Simply start reading at page one, do every example in the book as you go along, sometime before the appendix you will have your COM/DCOM wings. The embedded source code is there because it has to be there. Nearly every line is referenced in the narrative and the text depends on it. If you already have programmed some COM/DCOM experience as I had, you may still find the read worthwhile.
I must caution that the book is exceptionally dry and without witticisms or amusing anecdotes. Mr. Harmon is down to business and makes no effect to entertain the anyone that I can tell. You won't even find a jab at Microsoft here. But if you want to learn COM/DCOM as a Delphi programmer, you have come to the right place. You can always go out to the club when you're done.
