Third-party software component
Encyclopedia
In computer programming
, a third-party software component is a reusable software component developed to be either freely distributed or sold by an entity other than the original vendor of the development platform. The third-party software component market thrives because many programmers believe that component oriented development
improves the efficiency and quality of developing custom applications. However, this belief may be misplaced because the majority of these components are not subject to the same quality controls that one would expect to find in other industries. It is rare to find a software component that was developed in accordance with a general standard such as ISO 9001, let alone a more specific standard that would be applicable to the function of the component. For instance, there is a British Standards Institution specification BS 6117:1981 which details the requirements for the performance and characteristics of glass bottles for light wine, however no such standard exists for a software component that would provide a Java logging framework. This means that the user of such a software component would not be able to rely on it having a predictable behaviour.
Visual Basic
Spawned the first commercially viable market for reusable software components. Visual Basic's first extensibility mechanism was the specification for Visual Basic Extension
s, commonly known as "custom controls".
In version 4.0 of Visual Basic, the OCX custom control was introduced to replace VBX. OCX was later renamed ActiveX and then COM
. In version 7.0 of Visual Basic, also known as VB.NET, Microsoft introduced the .NET Component to replace both VBX and ActiveX. It was still possible to use many ActiveX components in VB.NET by wrapping them in a .NET layer.
Computer programming
Computer programming is the process of designing, writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. This source code is written in one or more programming languages. The purpose of programming is to create a program that performs specific operations or exhibits a...
, a third-party software component is a reusable software component developed to be either freely distributed or sold by an entity other than the original vendor of the development platform. The third-party software component market thrives because many programmers believe that component oriented development
Component-based software engineering
Component-based software engineering is a branch of software engineering that emphasizes the separation of concerns in respect of the wide-ranging functionality available throughout a given software system...
improves the efficiency and quality of developing custom applications. However, this belief may be misplaced because the majority of these components are not subject to the same quality controls that one would expect to find in other industries. It is rare to find a software component that was developed in accordance with a general standard such as ISO 9001, let alone a more specific standard that would be applicable to the function of the component. For instance, there is a British Standards Institution specification BS 6117:1981 which details the requirements for the performance and characteristics of glass bottles for light wine, however no such standard exists for a software component that would provide a Java logging framework. This means that the user of such a software component would not be able to rely on it having a predictable behaviour.
Visual Basic
MicrosoftMicrosoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
Visual Basic
Visual Basic
Visual Basic is the third-generation event-driven programming language and integrated development environment from Microsoft for its COM programming model...
Spawned the first commercially viable market for reusable software components. Visual Basic's first extensibility mechanism was the specification for Visual Basic Extension
Visual Basic Extension
In computer programming, a Visual Basic Extension or custom control, was the component model used in Microsoft Visual Basic versions 1.0 to 3.0. It is still supported in the 16-bit version of version 4.0, but was made obsolete by OCXs...
s, commonly known as "custom controls".
In version 4.0 of Visual Basic, the OCX custom control was introduced to replace VBX. OCX was later renamed ActiveX and then COM
Component Object Model
Component Object Model is a binary-interface standard for software componentry introduced by Microsoft in 1993. It is used to enable interprocess communication and dynamic object creation in a large range of programming languages...
. In version 7.0 of Visual Basic, also known as VB.NET, Microsoft introduced the .NET Component to replace both VBX and ActiveX. It was still possible to use many ActiveX components in VB.NET by wrapping them in a .NET layer.
See also
- Enterprise Java Beans
- VCLVisual Component LibraryVCL is a visual component-based object-oriented framework for developing Microsoft Windows applications. It was developed by Borland for use in, and tightly integrated with, its Delphi and C++Builder RAD tools...
/ CLXComponent Library for Cross PlatformComponent Library for Cross Platform , is a cross-platform visual component-based framework for developing Microsoft Windows and Linux applications. It is developed by Borland for use in its Kylix, Delphi, and C++ Builder software development environment.... - KParts (KDEKDEKDE is an international free software community producing an integrated set of cross-platform applications designed to run on Linux, FreeBSD, Microsoft Windows, Solaris and Mac OS X systems...
)