COM MFC ATL worth studying??

Question

Is it worth studying COM MFC ATL WTL now?

Answer 1

Not really. If you want to make a COM object now, you could just use C++/.NET instead. If you want a UI, WinForms or WPF work fine.

Answer 2

Only if you have to interface with some COM objects OR if you have to maintain some old COM/ATL code.

Same goes for MFC/WTL. Better and quicker UIs can be developed with latest .NET tools such as WPF and Winforms.

Answer 3

Everything is worth studying:

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it

You must understand the past to understand the present

Should you spend a majority of your time on it? Only if you expect that you will have to work with it. Otherwise, focus on the future.

Answer 4

Yes, you might get a job at Microsoft in their second most profitable business, Office, which is still based on COM. There are worse fates than that.

Answer 5

Potentially yes for COM and ATL, if you're planning to program for Windows 7. All the new platform APIs coming out are COM-based: Direct 2d, Ribbon, Animation, Location & Sensors, Libraries, etc...

There will likely be .NET wrappers for some of these, but managed code is no longer the focus for the Windows team, at least for now and the near future.

Answer 6

The concepts of COM are really worth understanding. Especially the concept of interfaces, object creation strategies, proxies and Apartments.

Answer 7

COM is totally worth it. The rest, not so much.

Answer 8

From Wilmott forum "xlw, xll, C stuff: hardened C/C++ quants COM: C++ quants and traders (possibly). Once you learn ATL project 'mechanics' it's easy. C#: easiest of the three to use, full .NET interoperability, traders and developers"

I've put its link on http://shaktisaran.tech.officelive.com/ExcelCOM.aspx

It also has Excel - COM using C++, Windows Programming tutorials, free software just because I've been learning some of what you mention however also by making things which might even be useful for others. Someone mentioned that everything is worth studying on which I recently wrote

"I'm trying for computational finance graduate programs and hence might experience similar [not enough sleep] again but perhaps it would be like that just few days a month or term and moreover it would be fun. This might even be why people don't pursue higher studies but work because people might even get an easier job whereas studies it seems require a lot more effort whether a lower or a higher program because the knowledge is the same and its learning can't be measured like the many great scientists who have been average students. I think just not for science but for everything higher studies can help greatly because humans need to become much better for pursuing more in the Universe and for making the society and the overall environment much better."

However, for studying a lot more and then even making useful contributions I think humans would need to live a lot more on which I've had thoughts some of which I even mention on my web-site.