4 ms·

Can you elaborate a bit on what COM was? (or link a resource) I couldn't find its mention on the Windows 3.1 Wikipedia page.

• PaulHoule 6y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_Object_Model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_Object_Model which is an elaboration of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Data_Exchange https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Data_Exchange A common use of COM was scripting with Visual Basic in the 1990s, for instance, ask Excel what is in cell B7, or dynamically load a GUI component out of a DLL and script it into a Visual Basic application. This blends the boundaries between applications in that you might have a Word document that has an Excel spreadsheet embedded in it, and it really does boot up Excel and has Excel render itself in a rectangle inside the Word document.
  • vortex_ape 6y ago
    Thank you for the links! > A common use of COM was scripting with Visual Basic in the 1990s ... This sounds nifty!
    • cheschire 6y ago
      It was! Then the malware came. Those links opened a million security holes that were effectively untestable.
    • AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
      Nowadays you still interface with COM through PowerShell scripting, and it is pretty nifty.
    • magicalhippo 6y ago
      It is used for a lot more. Want to integrate Windows Explorer in your application? COM. Custom property pages in Windows Explorer? COM. Custom folder view ala zip folder? COM. Want Windows Explorer to be able to extract metadata from your custom file format, or Windows Search to search it? COM. Want to play or manipulate video using the installed codecs? COM. Want users to be able to drag an attachment from Outlook and drop it into your custom application? COM. Just some examples. COM is a bit clunky, but it's a great enabler on the desktop. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/shell/intro https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/shell/intro https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/properties/property-system-overview https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/properties/pr... https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/directshow/directshow https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/directshow/di... https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/shell/dragdrop https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/shell/dragdro...
      • p0nce 6y ago
        COM is still used a lot in audio (at least the COM ABI) because it allows to share objects between programs/shared libraries and manage their destruction. It also has a nice way to add functionality.
      • TeMPOraL 6y ago
        I'd also add: Want to play video games? DirectX is a COM API too.
  • brazzy 6y ago
    So basically what Amiga OS had with ARexx in the 1980s. Edit: I misremembered, that was the 90s as well because it was a later development in the Amiga ecosystem.
  • ptx 6y ago
    This use didn't go away after the 1990s - Office still uses Visual Basic which still uses COM.
• qppo 6y ago
  It's a language agnostic binary interface. It's kind of hard to explain without getting into the technical details of how it works. For many years it was the only stable ABI on windows.
  • p_l 6y ago
    It is the only blessed API for all new APIs since 2000, I think.