Three Features for Component Frameworks

Component-oriented programming promises to provide many of the bene ts that object-oriented programming has arguably failed to deliver: increased productivity, reliability, and exibility via increased reuse of third-party software. Unfortunately, it is not always clear how componentoriented programming di ers from object-oriented programming, or why component-oriented programming should succeed where object-oriented programming has failed. We identify three technical features which need to be supported by component-oriented programming languages or frameworks | component containment; multiple instances of component interfaces; and interface dispatch | and give examples to show why these features may help component-oriented programming live up to its claims.