As part of my MSc (1999) I researched and wrote a dissertation on the 'wide' subject of Component Technology. The 'abstract' is further below
The dissertation is a 10000+ word document (Word 97 format) and can be downloaded here (zipped 249KB)
I also gave a presentation on the subject (30 PowerPoint slides including notes 269KB). It can be viewed here (zipped 63KB)
The new buzzword that seems to appear in computing circles is undoubtedly, ‘component’. Component-Orientation seems to be replacing Object-Orientation (OO). Pure OO practitioners see components merely as large objects. Opinions exist that components are a completely new concept that revolutionises software development and replaces object-orientation as the main approach to software development. Three major approaches have emerged, each with its own view on component technology: OMG CORBA, Microsoft COM/DCOM and Sun’s Java based approach. Which way should we follow?
In this document, we assume knowledge of OO and provide an overview to components and the underlying technology along with introducing the three aforementioned approaches. We explain how component technology is an evolution of object technology and try to show that each of the approaches has its advantages and disadvantages.