So far, we have determined that:
- Software components integrate at the binary level.
- Software component reuse is based on object composition.
Having surveyed the difference between source-level reuse and integration as used in C++, and binary-level integration and reuse as used by software components, let's move on to COM's reuse mechanisms.
For our study of COM's reuse mechanisms. let's set up a scenario and some terminology:
- We have a COM client called
COMCli
.
- We have a COM object, used by
COMCli
, called OuterCOMObj
.
- We also have a COM object called
InnerCOMObj
that is reused by OuterCOMObj
.