COM

COM, short for Component Object Model, is a model for binary code developed by Microsoft that enables programmers to develop objects that can be accessed by any COM-compliant application. Both OLE and ActiveX are based on COM. In COM, client software accesses an object through a pointer to an interface, or a related set of functions called methods, on the object. COM components can be written in a variety of programming languages. One advantage of COM is that it gives ASP scripts the ability to dynamically bind to COM objects, thereby linking simple scripting (VBScript or JScript) to compiled objects (typically written in C or C++). On Linux and UNIX, Sun Chili!Soft ASP uses its own proprietary COM emulation layer.