[[Property:title|Generalities]]
[[Property:link_title|COM Concepts]]
[[Property:weight|1]]
[[Property:uuid|9cb19fc1-3d26-5752-6232-ea23f2668c32]]
COM is a binary standard that describes how a component can communicate with the outside world. The component communicates through well-defined interfaces. Each interface is a specification of a group of properties and methods. Importantly, the interface does not contain the implementation of the properties and methods, only their specifications (signatures). The actual implementation lies in the [[Coclass|'''coclass''']]. There can be different implementations of a same interface in different coclasses. Finally, each coclass can be instantiated using a class object or class factory. These three notions will be discussed further in the forthcoming paragraphs. 
{{seealso|<br/>
[[EiffelCOM Library| EiffelCOM library]]  <br/>
[[EiffelCOM: Introduction| Introduction]]  <br/>
[[COM Interfaces| COM Interfaces]]  <br/>
[[Coclass| Coclasses]]  <br/>
[[The Component Location| Component Location]]  <br/>
[[Access Type| Access Type]]  <br/>
[[Deeper into COM| Deeper into COM]]  }}




