[[Property:title|COM Concepts]]
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This page defines some concepts that are fundamental to the entire technology of COM.
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==The COM Standard==
COM is a standard that describes how a binary component can communicate with the outside world.

==Interfaces==
The component communicates through well-defined interfaces. Each interface is a specification of a group of properties and methods. It is important that the interface does not contain the implementation of the properties and methods, only their specifications (signatures).

==Coclasses==
The actual implementation lies in the [[Coclass|'''coclass''']]. There can be different implementations of the same interface in different coclasses.

==Class Objects or Class Factories==
Finally, each coclass can be instantiated using a class object or class factory.


These notions will be discussed further in the upcoming sections.

{{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]]  }}