Chapter 15: The COM Library

It should be clear by this time that COM itself involves some systems-level code, that is, some implementation of its own. However, at the core the Component Object Model by itself is a specification (hence Model) for the way objects and their clients interact through the binary standard of interfaces. As a specification it defines a number of other standards for interoperability:

In addition to being a specification, COM is also an implementation contained what is called the COM Library. The implementation is provided through a library (such as a .DLL on Microsoft Windows) that includes:

In general, only one vendor needs to, or should, implement a COM Library for any particular operating system. For example, Microsoft has implemented COM on Microsoft® Windows® 3.1, Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft Windows NT, and the Apple® Macintosh®.

The following chapter describes elements of the COM Library that a vendor implementing COM on a previously unsupported platform would require.

You can read through this chapter, or choose a topic of interest from this list: