September 15th, 2003

Eric's complete guide to BSTR semantics

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Eric Lippert has posted Eric’s Complete Guide to BSTR Semantics. This is a document that is widely valued within Microsoft, since BSTR semantics are rather tricky, and I’m glad he’s willing to share it with the world.

In particular, Eric spends quite a bit of time discussion the very important equivalence of NULL and L”” in BSTR semantics, something that is buried in paragraph seven of an MSDN document you probably didn’t even bother reading.

If you ask nicely, you might be able to convince him to post his “Complete history of OLEDATE”.

Category
Old New Thing
Topics
Code

Author

Raymond Chen

Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

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