I noticed I still had a copy of Inside COM on my shelf the other day. I guess I held on to it because I fondly remember COM as a simple and elegant technology that had the potential to be the vehicle of true Component-Based Software Development, or at least give C++ developers a usable Application Binary Interface that it still lacks to this very day.

Unfortunately the elegance was quickly lost under the clutter of IDL and COM+ and ActiveX and IDispatch and the rest of the kitchen sink that was piled on top of it.

But seeing how COM is making a comeback with WinRT, and how new copies of this book are selling for US$60+ on Amazon, I’m glad I kept it. It might come in handy in the near future.