COM Marshaling

[Zen]

...I'll probably get numerous (well-deserved) death threats for posting this, but,...
Raymond Chen is doing a series about COM Marshaling,...and, I know this is a HOT TOPIC with MASM Programmers,...so, I feel that it is my civic duty to alert you guys,...:icon_eek:

What Is COM Marshaling and How Do I Use It?, Oct 20, 2015
What Are the Rules for CoMarshalInterThreadInterfaceInStream and CoGetInterfaceAndReleaseStream?, Oct 21, 2015
What Are the Rules for CoMarshalInterface and CoUnmarshalInterface?, Oct 22, 2015
CoGetInterfaceAndReleaseStream Does Not Mix With Smart Pointers, Oct 23, 2015

...This is also useful information:
What's the Difference Between UuidFromString, IIDFromString, CLSIDFromString, GUIDFromString..., Oct 15, 2015

[dedndave]

cool - i'll have a look when i have more time to play   :t

[Zen]

...I'm fairly sure that I'm allergic to COM Marshaling,...

[Farabi]

...I'm fairly sure that I'm allergic to COM Marshaling,...

I kinda itchy reading it  . Seriously, I dont really get what the article said. Maybe something like this:

Code Select Expand



Apartment struct

fa dword 0
fb dword 0
mc dword 0

Apartment ends

.data
MyApart Apartment <offset func1, offset funct2, 0>

.code

func1 proc

ret
func1 endp

func2 proc

ret
func2 endp

Accessor proc lpApart:dword

mov edx,lpApart
call [edx].Apartment.fa    ; access the apartment method
mov ecx,[edx].Apartment.mc  ; access the apartment member

ret
Accessor endp

Start:
Invoke Accessor, addr MyApart



[Zen]

...Seriously, I don't really get what the article said,...

...Ha,...Ha,...Seriously, ONAN,...I'm fairly sure that NOBODY gets COM Marshaling,...
...It's one of those things that you'd NEVER do in assembly code,...
...The Apartment (in COM) is a threading model,...

Here's a pretty clear description: What Are These "Threading Models" and Why Do I Care?, Larry Osterman's WebLog
Here's the official MSDN version: Understanding and Using COM Threading Models, MSDN