>>Because COM doesn't work well over the Web and XML does. Because COM has registration and DLL Hell issues. Because COM can't interoperate well with other systems. Because if you sell data over the Web and I want that data, I can't rely on COM. How do I know your system is built with COM? How am I going to get a COM object through the firewall?
>>>
>>
>>I am so tired of this argument. COM implemented the right way does work.
>
>Huh? How do you implement com through a firewall? I'm not talking about punching holes, I am talking about port 80/443? Without writing a lot of code on both the client and the server side, you can't.
>
>> Prudent testing and having standards gets around a lot of the DLL Hell issues.
>
>Translates nicely into 'a lot of extra work' gets around the DLL hell
> issues. THe fact that you know how to work through a COM versioning
> issue has nothing to do with the fact that the problem is commonplace,
> and is a PITA even for those that know exactly how to solve it.

FWIW, I don't think the DLL hell will go away anytime soon. Take a look at http://www.wdj.com/archive/1112/forum.html to see a list of promises, err efforts, that MS has made in the past to cure the DLL hell.