Issues in typelib.c with installshield 7

[Mike Hearn]

On Wed, 2003-12-10 at 00:12, Andrew de Quincey wrote:
> Yeah, I've played with it under windows... an ITypeInfo is supposed to 
> AddRef() the ITypeLib ONCE when its retrieved using things like 
> ITypeLib.FindName(). (when you release it, you do it just once as well, when 
> the original refcount at which it was AddRef()ed is reached). This ain't 
> happening. Yet.

I don't remember exactly what I did, but I remember it being classed as
"wrong" somehow... I expect it was reffing things too many times.

> I've also found a number of other bugs in that file; specifically theres a lot 
> of confusion between BSTR and OLESTR going on, which really really knackers 
> things. Easy to do though: they've just confused the hell out of me!! So a 
> BSTR is the same type as an OLESTR to the C compiler, EXCEPT it has a fancy 
> hidden DWORD before the actual buffer giving the number of bytes used! Thats 
> not at all confusing is it?

Indeed. BSTR is quite possibly the most moronic string type I've ever
seen.

For the interested lurkers amongst us, here is a useful guide to BSTR
semantics I stumbled across some time ago. They use it internally in
Redmond:

http://blogs.gotdotnet.com/ericli/PermaLink.aspx/853ae05f-7610-4531-ab1b-070695e61168

It's good to have another person who understands OLE on board! I spent
months getting to grips with the darn thing, and now I don't have any
spare time to work on it :(