Components

Overview Component programming--the practice of creating reusable code "building blocks"--has become increasingly popular with the advent of object-oriented languages. Two primary technologies exist for building components: CORBA, a cross platform component architecture created and maintained by the vendor association OMG; and COM, Microsoft's Windows-only answer to component creation. Follow the links below to learn more about these technologies, the history of component creation, and online resources dedicated to component technology. 

History and General Information The article “Tracing the roots of components from OOP through WS” by James Durham explores the key developments of components and object-oriented programming throughout the last 50 years. The article even contains a comprehensive timeline of the development of objects, components, and object-oriented programming, starting in 1951. The Internet contains a wealth of information about programming components. Below is a list of links to sites with both commercially available, and freely distributed programming components. 

• www.cetus-links.org/
• www.freewarehome.com/Programming/Components_and_Libraries
• www.freereports.net/visual_basic.html

COM and CORBA Sites Definitions of CORBA and COM can be found here and here. Also take a look at DCOM, a distributed component architecture based on COM. OMG maintains a web site with CORBA FAQs, tutorials, and general information; click here to take a look. The official CORBA site is here. Information on COM can be found  at Microsoft's COM site which is here. Information on DCOM is located at Microsoft's MSDN DCOM page. Microsoft maintains a site on COM+, an extension to COM, here.

Additional Links Microsoft Programming Components with Visual Basic V 6.0 by Guy and Henry Eddon (Microsoft Press, 1998) is a highly rated book with detailed information about components, COM (Component Object Model), and ActiveX controllers. One excerpt of this book is available at www.amazon.com. To read reviews of this book and to obtain purchase information, visit this Epinions.com page.

The DevX site (www.devx.com/vb/Door/7047) and the Visual Basic Web Magazine site (www.vbwm.com/) are two websites recommended by programmers. Here you’ll find news about the latest VB components and programming techniques. The Visual Basic Programmer's Journal is the standard paper-based reference resource for Visual Basic programmers. You can subscribe to this journal at the DevX site.