Slashdot Mirror
Programming .NET Components
One day, I stumbled upon the mono and Portable.NET projects, which are trying to bring all the .NET stuff to the penguin platform. This was the main reason that convinced me to learn more on .NET: open specs, a component-enabling technology, the cross-platform mirage, a completely new (well, sort of) set of concepts to be grasped, and something which I could use both on Linux and on Windows.
Armed with these expectations, I decided to look for a good introductory text on the .NET framework focused on components development. Among the plethora of publications on the subject, I decided to stick with a publisher having a long and respectable tradition in Open Source related books. Among the herd of funny beasts that populate O'Reilly's catalog, I picked out a "land hermit crab," aka Programming .NET Components, by Juval Loewy.
Overview The book begins with a chapter giving a rationale behind component-oriented programming versus object-oriented programming, that is, interfaces versus inheritance. The second chapter shows how those concepts are reflected in the .NET Framework, briefly introducing the Common Language Runtime (CLR), the Intermediate Language (IL) and .NET Assemblies. The following three chapters deal with interface-based programming, objects lifecycle management and versioning, gradually introducing the underlying concepts and showing how they become concrete in the .NET framework (more specifically, by using the C# language). No formal introduction to C# language constructs is given, but if you are familiar with C++ or Java you will be able to follow the code snippets fairly easily.Events and asynchronous code execution are the subjects of Chapters 6 and 7, respectively. While the former is just a quick introduction to the C# approach to delegates and events (yet useful if you are new to the matter), the chapter on asynchronous calls is much more substantial. The mechanics behind async calls are explained, together with pros and cons of using callbacks, BeginInvoke() and EndInvoke() calls, one-way methods, and so on.
Chapter 8 is devoted to Multithreading and Concurrency. Commonplace concepts like threads application and usage are explained, as always dressed with a bit of C# syntax. While such concepts are easily found in any multithreaded programming tutorial on the Internet, explaining them from the basics never hurts -- and prepares the reader to the most insidious traps of multithreaded programming. Synchronization appropriately takes a fair part of Chapter 8: automatic and manual synchronization provided by the .NET runtime environment are explained, together with the concepts of contexts and synchronization domains. This part is quite interesting, since it delves into .NET specific concepts which are quite new to programmers who had a happy Microsoft-less childhood (though they might not be so new to people who speak COM fluently). Other .NET threading related services (such as timers) are presented at the end of the chapter.
Chapter 9, devoted to object serialization and persistence, describes how live objects can be transformed (formatted) into a stream of bytes to be sent over a network channel, or stored on a persistent storage medium. This chapter lays the grounds for the exacting chapter on remoting, which follows immediately. Chapter 10 is the longest and most content-rich chapter of the book: first, the entire story of native processes, .NET app domains and assemblies is told. After reading it here, it won't look so confusing as before. Then, objects marshaling, remote callbacks, synchronization and activation modes are described, including client and server activated, single-call and singleton modes. Afterwards, the author gets to a global overview of the .NET remoting architecture, its basic building blocks (like proxies, transport channels and call dispatchers) and working mechanisms (like type registration and environment configuration). A reprise on objects sponsorship and leasing closes the chapter and completes the discussion on objects' lifecycle left pending in Chapter 4. Chapter 10 offers a lot of interesting cues, but unfortunately cannot dig deeply enough in the subject (after all, this is not a book on remoting). Many people (including Juval himself) recommend Ingo Rammer's Advanced .NET Remoting (APress) to learn more on the topic, but I have yet to get my hands on it.
Chapter 11 reprises the description of contexts in .NET, this time focusing on calls interception. The whole interception architecture is described with a fair level of detail and, as always, in a clear and understandable way. Context-agile and context-bound objects are described, as well as .NET and custom component services. While reading this chapter, you start understanding that contexts, app domains, call interception and remoting are tightly interwoven and that their full understanding is the real key to the exploitation of the .NET platform potential. Unfortunately, this is where the book leaves you alone -- but I strongly suspect that a full coverage of these topics would have required an entire book on its own.
The last chapter of the book deals with the .NET Security architecture, introducing the concepts of permissions, code groups and policies. Security administration is explained, both from a system configuration and a programmatic point of view.
What's to like What I liked most is the straightforward approach of the author in introducing the rationale behind components, components-based programming and their support in the .NET Framework: each concept is walked through step-by-step, instead of being presented in a complete working example with little or no explanation. Hence, you won't get working code on page 3 of the book -- instead, you will gradually learn how to write some.
Indeed, I found the description of awkward concepts like asynchronous calls, multithreading and remoting very clear, even for someone with no previous experience with .NET and C#.
I also consider a plus the broad experience the author has in the field, which shines through the many programming hints given, and in lots of references to concepts in COM which have an homologous in .NET.
I finally found the book to have the right balance between printed code and text (that is: do not fill hundreds of pages with code, I'll look at it online).
What's to consider Programming .NET Components is just an introductory book: it points you in the right direction toward components programming with .NET, but does not bring you very far. If you are really serious about learning .NET advanced topics, you will need a more specific tome to complement (or substitute for) this one.More specifically, the 70 pages which cover remoting are just an introduction to the matter. The same applies to some of the most important concepts revolving around .NET (app domains, contexts, and the like).
Finally, despite the subtitle ("Design and Build Maintainable Systems using Components-Oriented Programming"), be warned that this is not at all a book on software design (components oriented programming is covered in just 15 pages).
The summary Reading the book goes without a glitch, thanks to a smooth writing style and a very structured approach to explaining concepts. Still, when I turned the last page of the book I felt that my understanding of components within the .NET platform was far from complete..NET Components Programming is quite fair to its title: it will teach you how to program components by using .NET constructs, but (apart from some quick notes here and there) it will not provide extensive coverage of components oriented design and development. If you are already familiar with .NET concepts and are looking for something shedding light on components programming, this book will not help you significantly. On the contrary, if you know something about components and want to start developing them into the .NET Framework, this will surely be an interesting read.
Table of Contents
Preface
Chapter 1. Introducing Component-oriented programming
Chapter 2. .NET Component-oriented Programming Essentials
Chapter 3. Interface-based Programming
Chapter 4. Lifecycle Management
Chapter 5. Version Control
Chapter 6. Events
Chapter 7. Asynchronous Calls
Chapter 8. Multithreading and Concurrency Management
Chapter 9. Serialization and Persistence
Chapter 10. Remoting
Chapter 11. Context and Interception
Chapter 12. Security
Appendix A. Interface-based Web-services
Appendix B. Custom Security Principal
Appendix C. Reflection and Attributes
You can purchase Programming .NET Components from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
01001001 00100111 01110110 01100101 00100000 01100010 01100101 01100101 01101110 00100000 01110111 01100001 01101001 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101111 01100100 00100000 01110010 01100101 01110110 01101001 01100101 01110111 00100000 01101111 01101110 00100000 00101110 01001110 01000101 01010100 00100001
01000010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01001100 01101111 01110110 01100101
Important Stuff: Please try to keep posts on topic. Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads. Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page) If you want replies to your comments sent to you, consider logging in or creating an account. Problems regarding accounts or comment posting should be sent to CowboyNeal. Important Stuff: Please try to keep posts on topic. Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads. Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page) If you want replies to your comments sent to you, consider logging in or creating an account. Problems regarding accounts or comment posting should be sent to CowboyNeal.
Important Stuff: Please try to keep posts on topic. Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads. Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page) If you want replies to your comments sent to you, consider logging in or creating an account. Problems regarding accounts or comment posting should be sent to CowboyNeal.
Important Stuff: Please try to keep posts on topic. Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads. Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page) If you want replies to your comments sent to you, consider logging in or creating an account. Problems regarding accounts or comment posting should be sent to CowboyNeal.
Important Stuff: Please try to keep posts on topic. Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads. Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page) If you want replies to your comments sent to you, consider logging in or creating an account. Problems regarding accounts or comment posting should be sent to CowboyNeal.
Why not just use what .NET is TRYING very hard to become... Coldfusion
And have code that runs on several different platforms as well..
Karma means nothing to me, so suck it...
M$ makes that cool-aide sooooo sweet! What? You thought it was going to tastes like shit up front? JAV
If you plan on buying this book, more reviews of the book can be found here and here and you can buy it new for $24.50 here
I know what most of you at think, hey this guy is a faggot. Let me tell you something though, Microsoft creates a product that everyone loves and enjoys. They have years of experiance which Linux has yet to even begin to get. Would a company that has 90% of the desktop marketshare be that bad. I haven't see a single computer that runs Linux or any other alternative at any of my friends house. You see they know as well as I, that Microsoft will be here for a long time to come, and that Linux will be brought down by SCO.
Eat a dick homos! I went off my meds yesterday and I'm feelin' just G-Reat guys! How many of you want to have me shit corn into your foreskins? You do!?? Well I'm not gonna cause I ain't no gay!
A nigger wrote this book?
I don't use DCOM because I don't understand what it's all about. I don't use Java because I *do* understand what it's all about...
Well, whether the greater /. crowd realizes it or not, there's a lot of us who regularly contribute around here that work with the Nazi party and do so willingly. Lets face it, there's lots of work out there for this stuff, and if I can make money doing it then great. While at times Slashdot can be rather hostile towards Nazi anything, it's still a pretty good resource for oven construction technology and wacky genocide links.
While this may be my first post to be classified as "Troll"...here goes...
A) Clearer documentation
B) Though built on ( unstable as dung Windows ),
it does DO what it purports to do, and without as many poodle loops as you have to jump with Corba and J2EE
Though...just because you can "grasp" DCOM doesn't mean you want to "jerk" around with it....you know...having to deal with that whole "hairy palms" business, and such.
They are the de-facto standard for server-sided, web server, application server, database, and programming languages and you just can't handle it.
Wanna know how I know? There are WAY more small to medium sized businesses than there are large corporations. They don't even look at Open Sores shit.
Dell, the largest computer supplier in the world sells more Windows servers every day than they do OS-less or Linux servers.
Where's your proof?
I've been using .NET since the first public beta and it's way faster and more advanced than J2EE or anything else on the market. .NET Rocks!