Summary

This chapter has been a whirlwind tour through some of the functionality of ATL that the wizards expose, as well as some of the basic interface implementations of ATL. Even with the wizards, it should be clear that ATL is no substitute for solid COM knowledge. You still need to know how to design and implement your interfaces. As you'll see throughout the rest of this book, you still have to know about interface pointers, reference counting, runtime type discovery, threading, persistence . . . the list goes on. ATL can help, but you still need to know COM.

It should also be clear that the wizard is not a substitute for intimate knowledge of ATL or web application development. For every tidbit of ATL information shown in this chapter, there are 10 more salient details, extensions, and pitfalls. And although the wizard saves you typing, it can't do everything. It can't make sure your design and implementation goals are met: That's up to you.