Who should attend: Architects and developers interested in understanding how COM is used in distributed computing. The course requires an understanding of COM basics, but not of any particular programming language. This is not a programming course.

What you will learn: An architectural introduction to and applications of Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM) and Distributed COM (DCOM).

Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM) was first applied to the problems of compound documents and component software. Today, COM also provides the foundation technology for Microsoft's approach to distributed computing.

So far, there have been two major applications of COM in this area. The first, Distributed COM (DCOM), is a middleware technology addressing much the same problem as CORBA. The second is COM's application to Web technology, where it is used to create downloadable components and more.

This course provides an architectural introduction to both areas, including:

• How DCOM extends COM
• Comparing DCOM and CORBA
• ActiveX documents in browsers
• ActiveX controls and the Web
• Comparing controls and Java applets/Beans

David Chappell is principal of Chappell & Associates, an education and consulting firm in Minneapolis, and has presented seminars around the world. He is a member of the Object Management Group, a columnist for Object Magazine, and a frequent guest on the Computer Channel. He is the author of Understanding ActiveX and OLE.

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