COM Component

[eida_hanafiah]

I got a question? What is a good language to develop a COM component. Is it C++ or VB? Is there any perfomance issue and what is the pros and cons between both language?

[Scott Penner]

That's a good question, but it really depends on how much work you want to do.

Writing a COM server in C++ is definitely the more robust and high speed way to go (use ATL). On the other hand, if you're looking to blow something out in a couple days, think VB. VB makes it painfully easy to write COM objects, but makes a mess of the type library and therefore the object compatibility.

There's a pretty steep learning curve for writing ATL COM components in C++, but you have way more control and the execution speed is impressive.

A compromise might be to make the type library yourself to force VB to behave and write the component in VB.

[jim mcnamara]

Scott -
Check out JP Hamiltons' Visual Basic Shell Programming
Integrating Applications with the Windows Shell

It takes that VB vs type library problem one step further.