Conclusion

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Future versions of COM might make it easier for C++ developers to work with Automation and its associated data types. The COM+ run-time library, not available at this writing, will likely allow the Visual C++ compiler to inherently support COM interface pointers, BSTRs, VARIANTs, and dispinterfaces with a degree of ease and simplicity approaching that of Visual Basic and Java. Even if the client-side ATL classes we've discussed in this chapter—CComPtr, CComQIPtr, CComBSTR, CComVariant, and CComDispatchDriver—are someday superseded by the COM+ run-time library, you still need to understand the concepts of Automation. Furthermore, client code written using the ATL classes will still function correctly long after the COM+ run-time library is made available.