Since its inception some years back, the term COM has been quoted (and misquoted) in a wide variety of situations, so our primary task is to define it more precisely. First off, the acronym "COM" stands for "Component Object Model". For the purposes of this chapter, we'll just be using the acronym COM when we refer to the technology as a whole, in the context of programming with PowerBASIC.
As far as the history goes, COM itself has had a colorful evolution as it has grown from OLE (Object Linking and Embedding), through VBX and OCX, to the more recent definitions of COM and ActiveX, as the design concepts have evolved. Given the history, many of these terms tend to be used interchangeably, leading to general confusion. For example, the term ActiveX is intended to describe specific types of COM components (for example, visual control components), but it is common for the term to be applied to all types of COM components. In this document, we will be limiting discussion to COM and how it applies to PowerBASIC.
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