Who Is the Audience for This Book?

Because this book describes how to use COM and .NET together, we assume you have some familiarity with COM programming, either in Microsoft Visual Basic or in C++ using ATL. You should be familiar with the basic concepts: what coclasses and interfaces are and how they work, how COM uses the registry, and the lifecycle of a COM object. You can still use the book if you dont have COM experience, but you will benefit more if you have COM experience.

For the COM+ chapters, we assume youre familiar with the basic princi ples behind COM+. Although these chapters will show some basic procedures, in-depth information isnt provided because we assume you have already worked with COM+ to some extent. Because the development technique and installation of managed components differs slightly from those of unmanaged components, youll want to pay special attention to the procedures in these chapters and the use of managed component utilities.

On the .NET front, we assume youre familiar with the basics of .NET and have written some code using Microsoft Visual Basic .NET, Microsoft Visual C#, or managed C++. You dont have to be a .NET expert, but youll get more out of the book if you have some appreciation of how .NET works and some expe rience with building .NET applications.