BKMBGTAX.RVW   980823

"Mr. Bunny's Guide to ActiveX", Carlton Egremont III, 1998,
0-201-48536-2, U$14.95/C$20.95
%A   Carlton Egremont III ce3@mrbunny.com http://www.mrbunny.com
%C   P.O. Box 520, 26 Prince Andrew Place, Don Mills, Ontario M3C 2T8
%D   1998
%G   0-201-48536-2
%I   Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. (maybe)
%O   U$14.95/C$20.95 800-822-6339 Fax: 617-944-7273 bkexpress@aw.com
%P   91 p.
%T   "Mr. Bunny's Guide to ActiveX"

Publishers, of course, publish a lot of books, knowing that even if
they ("they" being the publishers in question) don't like the book,
very possibly somebody will.  (Addison-Wesley does less of this than
some others I could name.)  You have to wonder, though, if every once
in a while they are just a tad embarrassed by what they have produced. 
You particularly have to wonder when you notice that the normal AW
logo doesn't appear on the spine, and the book cover states boldly
that the book has been printed by "Some company in Reading,
Massachusetts."  (Even the cover letter from the marketing department
is printed on plain paper instead of corporate letterhead.  For an old
professional paranoid, this is enough to send my neuroses into high
gear.)

It is obvious that all children should be familiar with the concepts
of DCOM (the Distributed Common Object Model) before they are able to
read.  (Microsoft paid me to say that, of course, since while it is
obvious from a monopolistic perspective why ActiveX is going to be
around for a long time to come, nobody I know has been able to come up
with any technical reason why it should rate more than two minutes of
consideration in comparison to any of the competing technologies in
the same field.)  Therefore a bedtime story about ActiveX is long
overdue.  (It's probably Mr. Bunny's field.)  On the other hand, most
books about ActiveX are enough to put anyone to sleep.  (Unless it's
Farmer Jake's field.)

The author knows more about computers than his friends give him credit
for.  Indeed, if you aren't up on computers, programming, and computer
industry infighting you are not going to get the best jokes.  (People
who don't know anything about computers will find the book silly, at
best.)  What the author very obviously does know, however, is
technical literature.  Yes, I have reviewed books with tables of
contents just as detailed, and just as useless.  Yes, I have reviewed
books with indices almost as pointless.  Yes, I've reviewed books with
cute little gimmicks that take over from the information.  No, I
haven't reviewed the book with the bunny on the cover (I think I got
impatient and sent it off to the library).  Yes, I've reviewed books
that never explain, but only assert.

Hey, this is a book reviewer's kind of book.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1998   BKMBGTAX.RVW   980823