Southwest Fox - Day 2, Session 3
Christof Wollenhaupt - Introduction to COM
I decided to come to this session because of a new project we have taken on. I thought I might be able to use COM to get some data exposed to .NET more easily than the approach currently in place in the application. After seeing Rick's session on VFP and .NET, I'm not sure I'd really pursue that path, but I thought I'd sit through this session because it has been a long time since I've done anything with COM and a long time since I've seen one of Christof's sessions. I was a little concerned that this session would be over my head, and although I did understand most of what Christof discussed, I haven't found myself needing to know this much detail about COM. (A comment about my lack of sophistication as a developer, not a comment about the session!)
Christof mentioned that when COM came out, it was great because it was a language-independent standard that could be used with multiple development platforms.
I never thought about whether or not GUIDs were a Microsoft thing or if they came from somewhere else. Christof told us that there was a standards group overseeing these issues: http://www.opengroup.org/ He showed the difference between UUIDs and GUIDs Level 1 is based on MAC addresses and level 4 is not. (I didn't even know there were levels.)
Christof gave a very detailed and thorough explanation of how COM works and I couldn't even begin to paraphrase or summarize these concepts.
In the end, this session proved valuable because it taught me that there some things I just shouldn't do - there are other people who are far more capable. If I find myself needing to get this deep into COM, I'd hire someone else to deal with it.
Labels: conference, VFP
posted by Unknown @ 2:02 PM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
This comment has been removed by the author.
COM, and COM with VFP, has been out since 1999, fully documented, with lots of examples even on the install CD's. Did you ever review that material prior to attending Christof's session? I find your review to be totally lacking in useful content. Hate my comment? Make a missive against learning COM, then !!!!!
Your Comment, "Christof gave a very detailed and thorough explanation of how COM works and I couldn't even begin to paraphrase or summarize these concepts." Bothers me to no end, as it only proves that you weren't the right person to review this session at SWFox !!!
Mondo Regards [Bill]
Sorry to have offended you - my point was that It wasn't the right session for me or actually that I wasn't right for this session. I never said it wasn't a good session. It was, it was very well prepared and full of good technical content. I doubt that Christof could give anything less.
My comment that I couldn't summarize the concepts was meant to show that the concepts were above my head - a criticizm of my abilities, not Christof's.
One of the reasons I go to conferences is to find out more about things that I'm naturally inclined to work with and other things that I'm not so that I don't waste my billable time going down a path that will cause me pain.
Finally, to be clear, I wasn't assigned to "review" the session. I went to SW Fox and in my blog I simply shared some of my experiences with those who couldn't be there.
Bill, I don't think you have any idea what was covered in that session. I've been to an 'Introduction to COM' session at a Devcon in 1998. This was far more detailed than the one I previously saw. I'd venture to say this session was above alot of heads, mine included.
Del
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