component object model (DOC) (COM)

Component Object Model(COM) is an object model for software components. The COM model developed by Microsoft has object-oriented software structures and is equipped with Object Linking and Embedding( OLE) as communication interface. The object model specifies how individual software components are identified, how they publish their methods and how they are to be addressed. Each individual COM object is registered and uniquely identifiable.

The COM object model offers the conditions around individual software components of a computer system to address and with other software components to link. It regulates thus communication of the software components between processes and programs. The Component Object Model is similar Enterprise JavaBeans( EJB). It does not know inheritance, the software components can be aggregated, whereby their respective interface remains also outwardly accessible. COM objects are binary compatible objects, which work independently of the programming language.

With DCOM (Distributed) the COM object model has its extension for the distribution of software components in networks. Technologies based on COM are Object Linking and Embedding (OLE), ActiveX and DirectX. The COM approach is more advanced than that of the Common Object Request Broker Architecture( CORBA).