The Model
XPCOM is one of the main things making the Mozilla application environment an actual framework. It is a development environment that provides the following features for the cross-platform software developer:
- Component management
- File abstraction
- Object message passing
- Memory management
This component object model makes virtually all of the functionality of Gecko available as a series of components, or reusable cross-platform libraries, that can be accessed from the web browser or scripted from any Mozilla application. Applications that want to access the various Mozilla XPCOM libraries (networking, security, DOM, etc.) use a special layer of XPCOM called XPConnect, which reflects the library interfaces into JavaScript (or other languages). XPConnect glues the front end to the C++ or C programming language-based components in XPCOM, and it can be extended to include scripting support for other languages: PyXPCOM already offers support for Python, PerlConnect and plXPCOM provide support for Perl, and there are efforts underway to add CLI and Ruby language support for XPConnect.
On the developer side, XPCOM lets you write components in C++, C, JavaScript, Python, or other languages for which special bindings have been created, and compile and run those components on dozens of different platforms, including these and others where Mozilla itself is supported.
The flexibility to reuse the XPCOM components from the Gecko library and develop new components that run on different platforms facilitates rapid application development and results in an application that is more productive and easier to maintain. The networking library, for example, is a set of XPCOM components that can be accessed and used by any Mozilla application. File I/O, security, password management, and profiles are also separate XPCOM components that programmers can use in their own application development.
Read more about this topic: XPCOM
Famous quotes containing the word model:
“One of the most important things we adults can do for young children is to model the kind of person we would like them to be.”
—Carol B. Hillman (20th century)
“The best way to teach a child restraint and generosity is to be a model of those qualities yourself. If your child sees that you want a particular item but refrain from buying it, either because it isn’t practical or because you can’t afford it, he will begin to understand restraint. Likewise, if you donate books or clothing to charity, take him with you to distribute the items to teach him about generosity.”
—Lawrence Balter (20th century)