This book examines COM from the perspective of the C++ developer. Written by a leading specialist in the component object model of COM, it reveals the essence of COM, helping developers to correctly understand not only the methods of the COM programming model, but also its basis. Understanding the motives for creating a COM and its aspects related to distributed systems is extremely important for those developers who want to go beyond the simplest COM applications and become truly effective COM programmers. By showing why Distributed COM works this way and not otherwise, Don Box gives you the ability to apply this model creatively and efficiently for daily programming tasks.