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COMSTL
[STLSoft Projects]

    The Standard Template Library meets the Component Object Model More...

Modules
Interface Library
	This library provides facilities for manipulating COM interfaces.
BSTR Functions
	These functions create, manipulate and destroy instances of COM's BSTR type.
Error Library
	This library provides facilities for manipulating COM error information.
COM Reference Management Functions
	These functions assist in the management of object reference counts.
COM Memory Functions
	These functions expand on the COM API's CoTaskMem*() suite of functions.
OLE String Functions
	These functions create, manipulate and destroy instances of COM's OLE string type.
Running Object Table (ROT) Functions
	These functions create, manipulate and destroy instances of COM's Running Object Table (ROT).
Automation Library
	This library provides facilities for manipulating OLE Automation types.
Security Initialiser Functions
	These functions initialise the COM security libraries.
String Access Shims (COMSTL)
	These shims retrieve the C-string for arbitrary types.
Allocator Library (COMSTL)
	This library provides STL-compatible allocator types for COM.
Thread Marshal Functions
	These functions assist in the marshaling of components between threads and processes.
Value Policies
	These functions objects define the policies for manipulating various COM types.

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Detailed Description

    The Standard Template Library meets the Component Object Model

The philosophy of COMSTL (http://comstl.org/) is essentially the same as that of the STLSoft (http://stlsoft.org/) organisation: providing robust and lightweight software to the Component Object Model (COM) development community. COMSTL provides template-based software that builds on that provided by COM and STLSoft in order to reduce programmer effort and increase robustness in the use of the COM.

Namespaces

The COMSTL namespace comstl is actually an alias for the namespace stlsoft::comstl_project, and as such all the COMSTL project components actually reside within the stlsoft namespace. However, there is never any need to use the stlsoft::comstl_project namespace in your code, and you should always use the alias comstl.

Dependencies

As with all parts of the STLSoft libraries, there are no dependencies on COMSTL binary components and no need to compile COMSTL implementation files; COMSTL is 100% header-only!

As with most of the STLSoft sub-projects, COMSTL depends only on:

• Selected headers from the C standard library, such as wchar.h
• Selected headers from the C++ standard library, such as new, functional
• Selected header files of the STLSoft main project
• The header files particular to the technology area, in this case the COM library headers, such as objbase.h
• The binary (static and dynamic libraries) components particular to the technology area, in this case the COM libraries that ship with the operating system and your compiler(s)

In addition, some parts of the libraries exhibit different behaviour when translated in different contexts, such as with _WIN32_DCOM defined, or with iaccess.h include. In all cases the libraries function correctly in whatever context they are compiled.

STLSoft Libraries documentation © Synesis Software Pty Ltd, 2001-2004