The Active Template Library (ATL) provides a powerful way to build efficient Windows components. This clear, hands-on-style tutorial delivers plenty of real programming expertise and can show you how to get the most of out of ATL. ATL COM Programming starts off with a tour of the basic methods (using C++ templates) used in ATL development, as well as a tour of basic data types, such as strings (or BSTR). After teaching these ATL fundamentals, the book moves quickly into building ATL components, while introducing the basics of every ATL control (such as IUnknown, class factories, and class registration). The book also covers the powers of Visual C++ wizards for building ATL components. Included here are some very useful sections on debugging, error handling, multithreading, and connection points for building event handlers.
Later chapters concentrate on building useful ATL-based controls, whether general purpose or HTML-based components. Everything you need to know to develop components that have custom properties, event handlers, and even custom graphics is in these pages.
Written with the experienced developer in mind, ATL COM Programming shows you where the wizard-assisted development for ATL ends and custom work begins. With its hands-on approach and high level of technical detail, this book makes a good case to be the single most useful volume on ATL programming for the experienced C++ programmer. --Richard Dragan
