Introduction COM as a better C++ Overview Deployment - Static Linking vs Dynamic Linking Static linking Dynamic linking Cross-compiler problems Name mangling Solutions Aliasing with names Aliasing with ordinals Aliasing with vtables Binary layout of object/vtables Data encapsulation is syntactical Absence of a binary standard for C++ objects Solutions Versioning Better solutions Handle classes Pure shared abstract base classes Refinements to the interface-based approach to exposing C++ classes Defining and using an interface Out-of-band technique for creating objects A technique for deleting objects Adding functionality Extended functionality Orthogonal functionality Lifecycle management When to delete objects When references get duplicated Object creation revisited An extensible base for all interfaces Shortcomings Where are we? COM Interfaces 1 COM Interfaces : The Basics Interfaces Preamble The COM Type System : IUnknown COM Classes 1 The basics The client's view of classes The DLL server's view of classes COM Apartments 1 Execution Contexts Apartments : The Overview Marshalling and Remoting Standard Marshalling Apartments : The Basic Details Apartments : Call Dispatching