Because both of the samples that are used in this section to illustrate component building rely largely on both Microsoft® Visual C++® and the Component Object Model (COM), this section assumes that you have a working knowledge of both.
If you are not familiar with COM, please consult the following resources.
This section also assumes that you are using Visual C++ version 5.0 to create your custom components. You can, however, create pipeline components using any build environment that supports the creation of free-threaded COM server objects.