keywords: xpcom framework scripting compiler javascript
text: Distributed XPCOM - A Mozilla Remote Scripting Framework?  \\A little history here.  Microsoft first invented COM  as a cross-language\object model.  This was a precursor in some ways to .NET and still has a great\deal of valuable functionality.\\Its pretty simple.  You just define an IDL (interface definition language) and\then if you have a runtime or compiler that supports COM you can call functions\on an object (component) written in another language.\\Mozilla XPCOM (Cross Platform COM) is similar in goals. You can write a\component in C and then call its functions from Javascript.  It also works the\other way around but isn't used as much.\\This makes Mozilla a very powerful platform.  You can write a XUL extension and\then use the internal com ...\\