Advanced Visual Basic 6: Power Techniques for Everyday Programs
Written by a Microsoft insider and well-respected Visual Basic expert,  Matthew Curland'sAdvanced Visual Basic 6: Power Techniques for Everyday  Programsis a unique guide to extending the reach of VB into COM and object  design. This compendium of tips and strategies for doing more in VB is perfect  for intermediate to advanced developers who seek to overcome bottlenecks in  performance and functionality in their favorite programming tool.The underlying message is that VB lets you work more efficiently with Microsoft  COM if you implement a few extra routines that look under its hood. The more notable techniques use memory more efficiently (including code that  creates large numbers of objects faster). More advanced readers will appreciate  the in-depth guide to building COM objects programmatically within VB. (The book  shows you how to create lightweight COM objects by using custom routines.) For  the real guru, there's even a section on how to use inline assembly language  within VB. Later sections turn to a host of techniques for multithreading, doing  more with windows, and how to manage and customize COM-type libraries for  successful real-world deployment. Armed with these custom routines and an  expert's-eye view of VB internals, you'll be able to get more out of VB with  faster, more versatile programs.--Richard DraganTopics covered:Tips and strategies for extending Visual Basic by  using COMVB pointers and memory managementExtending VB arrays  (accessing underlying SAFEARRAY COM objects and speeding up array performance)Accessing theIUnknownCOM interface from within VBBinding names  and COMvtablesin VBImproving code reuse by using aggregation in VB  (overriding functions in child classes and simulating polymorphism)Improving object cleanup in VB (circular, weak, and strong references and  strategies for improving memory use in class hierarchies)Using COM class  factory APIs within VBLoading DLLs and OCX controls directlyLightweight COM objects in VBStrategies for creating large numbers of  objects efficientlyAccessing the VB Running Object Table (ROT)Calling  function pointers in VBSimulating inline assembly instructionsThreads  in VB (apartment models, worker and UI threads, and synchronization tips)Improving VB performance with stringsGenerating and customizing type  librariesBinary compatibility of COM objectsTips for working with  windows in VB (subclassing, custom window creation, and windowless controls)VBoost(custom library of advanced VB routines)