COM (Component Object Model) originated as OLE (Object Linking and Embedding). Originally, it was largely a means by which different types of Office documents could be linked, so that you could place a small Excel spreadsheet in your Word document, for example. From that it evolved into COM, DCOM and eventually COM+ - a sophisticated technology that formed the basis of the way almost all components communicated, as well as implementing transactions, messaging services, and object pooling.
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