CppCon 2018

Windows COM is 25 years old. Yet it is relevant today more than ever, because Microsoft has bet its entire modern WinRT API on it (starting with Windows 8/10). But, if you’re familiar with the “old” COM with its idioms and SDK helper classes, you’re in for a treat. With the advent of modern C++ 17, using COM objects and new Windows APIs in your applications feels like a completely new experience.
In this session, we’ll explore how using modern C++ features can radically transform the shape of your COM code. By eliminating a lot of boilerplate, your code will be much more readable and maintainable. Classic COM idioms around activation and QueryInterface() can feel totally different with modern C++ helpers. A beautiful example of modern COM usage is C++/WinRT (now part of Windows SDK). This is a standard C++ language projection for the new Windows Runtime API.
COM memory management, data marshalling, string handling can all feel quite mechanical in nature and very error prone, so a little help from modern C++ facilities would be more than welcomed. Error handling and debugging can be cumbersome for COM like APIs; we’ll explore some tricks to improve this experience, as well.