What are the disadvantages of Component Object Model?

Answer 1

Previously, before .NET, this used to be a major issue. "DLL Hell" refers to the set of problems caused when multiple applications attempt to share a common component like a dynamic link library (DLL) or a Component Object Model (COM) class. In the most typical case, one application will install a new version of the shared component that is not backward compatible with the version already on the machine. Although the application that has just been installed works well, existing applications that depended on a previous version of the shared component might no longer work. In some cases, the cause of the problem is even more subtle. In many cases there is a significant delay before a user discovers that an application has stopped working. As a result, it is often difficult to remember when a change was made to the machine that could have affected the application. A user may remember installing something a week ago, but there is no obvious correlation between that installation and the behavior they are now seeing. The reason for these issues is that version information about the different components of an application aren't recorded or enforced by the system. Also, changes made to the system on behalf of one application will typically affect all applications on the machine.

One reason why it was hard to build an isolated application was the run-time environment typically allowed the installation of only a single version of a component or an application. This restriction means that component authors must write their code in a way that remains backward compatible, otherwise they risk breaking existing applications when they install a new component. In practice, writing code that is forever backward compatible is extremely difficult, if not impossible. Also components were shared because disk space and memory was expensive. In the past few years, hard disk and memory prices have dropped dramatically, and disk space is no longer a premium. But as applications have increased in size and in modularity not so long ago many applications were entirely self-contained in a single .exe file - the DLL sharing issue has not been addressed, and the problem has grown over time.

Sagar Kulkarni