Microsoft® Visual C++® .NET 2003 Kick Start

Chapter 8. Writing COM Components in C++

IN THIS CHAPTER

• COM Components and Their Place in Software Development

• Using ATL to Create an Unmanaged COM Component

• Using a COM Component from Unmanaged C++

• Using a COM Component from Managed C++

• Exposing a Managed Class Library as a COM Component

• In Brief

COM Components and Their Place in Software Development

COM is a binary standard for Windows objects. That means that objects can execute the executable code (in a DLL or EXE) that describes another object. Even if two objects were written in different languages, they can interact using the COM standard.

How do they interact? Through an interface. A COM interface is a collection of functions, or really just function names. It's a C++ class with no data, only ...