Introduction to Seminar Topic on Active Template Library:
In order to make the COM or component object model programming much accessible and simple, Microsoft aimed to design a flock of C++ classes or in other words a program library based on unique template sets, this is popularly known as Active Template Library. Earlier it was named Active-X template library.
The main advantage of using Visual C++ was its ability to adapt to the COM classes and this resulted in creating objects like Active-X controls and automation server. By using suitable parameter substitution, a template can expand by invoking and result in construction of new classes which is used to execute the desired operational procedure. Although there are various C++ libraries, ATL excels bringing desired functions as a class that could be instantiated from a template.
ATL is often being denoted as source codes and is widely known as the primary building blocks of any component object model objects and code reusability is another factor with a variety of security features like converting into dynamic link library. Another type of similar library which helps in component development is Microsoft’s Foundation Class Library or MFC. ATL has an advantage over MFC as it is more swift, reliable and simpler for usage. If we are creating a new control from the scratch, it’s better to use ATL than MFC.
We create ATL applications inside a Visual C++ IDE and have to choose the appropriate server type first after having ATL COM AppWizard as the application type. The necessary files would be generated and we can view it by clicking inside the project workspace fileview tab. The exports of the DLL are implemented by Test.Cpp. Similarly lot of test process like def, idl, rc are used for generation, definition and resource information retrieval. The controls and complex can be developed using ATL along with COM objects and classes
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