>>Sylvain,
>>
>>If the server needs to have a UI it has to be out-of-proc. If you don't need a UI it can be either one. Calls to an in-proc DLL server are about twice as fast as calls to an out-of-proc EXE server in my testing.
>>
>>>I'm still confused about ActiveX Server. In which cases would a out-of-process ActiveX Server (.EXE) will be preferable over an in-process one (.DLL)?
>
>David -
>
>This is a topic I'm still trying to get straight. Are the following statements correct?
>
>* both an in-process and an out-of-process server can be instantiated on a client machine from the object definitions (EXE or DLL) stored on another machine
>* the in-process server class is created in the memory space of the application running on the client machine.
>* the out-of-process server is created in the memory space of the server.
>* if the server is across a WAN, communication between the UI and the in-process will be much faster than between the UI and an out-of-process server.
>
>Thanks in advance!
>
>- Mark
Mark:

Isn't this stuff fun! MSFT is trying to get us to develop in COM/DCOM ActiveX, etc. but the mainline documentation is sorely lacking. In my understanding, only an .EXE can be deployed on another machine -- either with DCOM or OLE Automation (both are similar) unless you use Transaction Server in which case you need to use a .DLL. This makes sense since the .DLL runs in MTS memory space.

Have fun. When the stuff works it is really cool, probably because it is so hard to get your head around.

Rick Grinter