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Inside OLE 2 by Kraig Brockschmidt Recommended

ISBN: 1 55615 618 9       Publisher: Microsoft Press       Pages: 977pages + disk       Price: £39-95

Categories:   MS Windows

Reviewed by Steve Davies in C Vu 7-4 (May 1995)

Why read this book? Brockschmidt maintains that, if you program for Windows, OLE 2 is the first step in a transformation that will change the way you program. The way he sees it (and he is a Microsoft insider), in resolving the deficiencies of OLE 1, the designers of OLE 2 have established an architecture of fundamental importance to Windows: the genesis of an object- oriented Windows. OLE exposes its functionality, including core resources such as the clipboard and the file system, via Windows Objects instead of API functions. At present the objects are implemented on top of the API functions, but Brockschmidt believes that, as Windows evolves, this relationship will be reversed, with the traditional API retained solely for backwards compatibility. This is not all; OLE 2 provides a compound file system (allowing files within a single OS file), an improved data transfer mechanism (for clipboard, drag and drop etc.), a compound document architecture and mechanisms for in-place editing of objects.

OLE automation is also a key technology for Windows, but Brockschmidt says that it is beyond the scope of this book. I was very disappointed when I discovered this and if I had paid the full price for the book, the discovery would have been almost painful. I would have liked the absence of OLE automation to have been evident from the book cover, but I can understand the publisher's difficulty. The OLE automation technology does seem to be quite distinct from the remainder of OLE 2, so maybe it is Microsoft (the software company) that should be blamed for the confusion, rather than Microsoft Press. I would also have liked to have seen a more prominent statement of the development tools required, if full value is to be obtained from the book: C++ compiler, SDK and OLE 2 SDK. I do not have the OLE SDK, so cannot comment on the two projects that are gradually developed through the book. (Code is included on 2 disks).

Is the book worth borrowing or buying? The approach used throughout the book is to begin each chapter with an overview of the specific area of OLE 2, then get coding. Since these overviews are quite extensive, this means that the reader interested in operating system architectures, but not intending to get dirty with OLE, will find the book interesting. The subject matter is complex and although Brockschmidt writes well, I found learning difficult and incomplete without working through the code. Unless you are developing OLE 2 applications, borrow, don't buy. If you plan to develop OLE 2 applications or components, take a good look; this book is rightly considered one of the definitive texts on a key technology.