Distributed

Exam Cram: Visual Basic 6 Distributed systematically works through the details commonly encountered on the exam and organizes itself around the Microsoft Solutions Framework Application Model. While the review offers some information on configuring the Visual Basic 6 development environment, it goes into much more detail on user interfaces (including user services, client-side Web interfaces, and ActiveX controls). The book also explores the Component Object Model (COM) objects used to define business logic and then details the implementation of data structures on the back end of a distributed Visual Basic application.

Since it is an exam preparation manual, Exam Cram: Visual Basic 6 Distributed includes some practice questions similar to those appearing on the exam. Each chapter wraps up with sample questions, and the book concludes with a 57-question sample test.

Like all books in the Exam Cram series, this one features helpful explanations with the answers to its sample questions. These explanations help you correct the thinking that leads to errors, rather than merely recognizing errors when you make them. --David Wall

The next chapter presents tips pertaining to the all-important interfaces in COM. Both the big picture and some precise details are covered to help you implement your interfaces safely, as well as the implementations and the particular challenges that COM presents. The authors emphasize "defensive coding"--pointing out dangerous assumptions and offering suggestions for producing reliable components.

Apartments, security, and transaction management are addressed in succeeding chapters. As with the previous topics, they are handled via a series of specific tips and suggestions. If you're new to COM programming, you should read some more introductory texts first, but if you've already experienced your baptism by fire into the subject, this title can help ease future pain. --Stephen Plain

The book commences with a tour of distributed computing, from the early days of terminal emulation, to the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) and onward to today's DCOM. The author includes a rich introduction to COM, from objects and built-in and custom interfaces to important concepts such as containment and aggregation. Though somewhat densely written, these chapters on the details of DCOM expose its real inner workings with standout material providing a full treatment of the different thread apartment models.

The second half of the book focuses on existing wizard-based code (using Visual C++ tools for the Active Template Library [ATL] and Microsoft Foundation Classes [MFC] COM components) starting with an ATL server-side optical character recognition (OCR) component. The author then presents client-side programming strategies for COM, far beyond tapping built-in Visual C++ capabilities, that incorporate custom template-based smart pointers for calling COM objects.

The book then turns to Web development where an OCR example is used within an Internet Explorer Web page. Sections on security demonstrate how to cooperate with Windows NT, as well as auditing and administrative options. Unfortunately, coverage of Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) is omitted here, arguably one of the most critical aspects of writing scalable Web applications. A final chapter on event handling (and connection points) shows off how to process events with distributed components.

Notable for its considerable technical depth and detail, Learning DCOM gives the advanced developer the inside track on creating state-of-the-art DCOM components. --Richard Dragan

The initial 31-page overview describes the colorful history of SQL Server with an excellent rundown of composite technologies and important features of the database. A very insightful analysis of SQL Server's engine internals follows, which breaks down all of the various manager components and explains how they work.

The remainder of the book focuses on the intelligent implementation of SQL Server in a number of areas. A chapter on planning and installation gives an unusually detailed look at hardware and software strategies for high performance and reliability. The book then covers how to effectively work with databases, tables, queries, transactions, triggers, and cursors.

Each subject receives highly detailed coverage with the goal of enhancing your decision making skills with knowledge of the inner workings of the product. Inside Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 is a database administrator's (DBA) gold mine--a rare treasury of in-depth product knowledge from true masters. --Stephen Plain

The first part consists of a comprehensive overview of client/server computing. In this critical introduction, the authors discuss the paradigm, the various flavors of servers, and the basics of two-tier and three-tier architectures. They also discuss how the client/server works in the real world and introduce the concepts of LAN, WAN, and other connection topologies.

Next, the authors introduce you to the various operating systems, the concept of middleware, and communication protocols. They present a forward-looking discussion of network operating systems, followed by several chapters on SQL database servers and transaction processing. With the database foundation laid, the authors then present client/server groupware, with a look at popular solutions such as Lotus Notes, Domino 5, and Novell GroupWise.

The book continues with discussions of object standards such as CORBA and DCOM, as well as an introduction to object databases and their potential for distributed computing. The book then covers the Internet with a wide-ranging discussion of Web-based client/server computing. This unique title wraps up with an acronym-packed look at client/server and distributed system management standards and a glimpse of the future of client/server architecture. --Stephen W. Plain

The book begins by contrasting traditional client/server computing with today's n-tiered architectures (including Microsoft's three-tiered Distributed Internet Architecture [DNA] approach). A general introduction to designing objects with Visual Basic follows in which the author enlists a case study for a video rental database. This includes a presentation of the best of user interface design in VB (including working with TreeView and toolbar controls).

You don't need to know much about TCP/IP to use DCOM, of course, but a section on this popular Internet protocol with the WinSock control provides some background material.

A full introduction to programming databases with ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) becomes incorporated into the video rental database example. After a quick look at ActiveX controls, the book provides an overview of COM, along with the benefits and potential risks of choosing between DCOM's (often perplexing) threading models.

After presenting material on object linking and embedding (OLE) Automation, the book zeroes in on creating DCOM components, data-aware VB objects with transactions and MTS, and real-world deployment issues with DCOM. These chapters provide a state-of-the-art guide to programming with Visual Basic in ways recommended by Microsoft.

Armed with these robust DCOM objects, the book next turns to the Web--first with ASPs and then with VB WebClasses for generating browser-neutral Web pages on the fly. (A final chapter looks at creating Active Documents out of VB forms for use with Internet Explorer.) In all, this practically-minded text provides a useful tour for real-world thin-client computing with VB and DCOM. The book assures that today's VB is all you need to write scalable, Web-centric distributed components and applications for the Microsoft platform. --Richard Dragan

Early chapters concentrate on familiarizing the reader with the key features of the Delphi environment and the basics of using the Delphi Visual Component Library (VCL) effectively in simple programs. The author pays much attention to user-interface design with components such as menus, buttons, checkboxes, toolbars, and list controls. Further sections cover graphics programming, printing, and database applications. The authors also look at Delphi's charting and reporting capabilities, a necessity for any real-world corporate development.

The book includes more expert material on Pascal language features, such as exception handling, default parameters, method overloading, and dynamic arrays, plus some Windows internals such as advanced message handling. Additional sections explain how to build custom ActiveX controls and dynamic link-libraries (DLLs) and offer a quick tour of Internet component programming in Delphi. --Richard Dragan