ActiveX Component: Also known as an automation server, ActiveX components contain definitions of COM objects that expose certain functionality.

ActiveX Control: A COM object (see the definition of object below) that provides programmatic functionality.

COM: The Component Object Model (COM) defines a language-independent specification for accessing components at runtime. This specification includes a set of interfaces for interaction between objects.

Object: In COM jargon, an object is simply a collection of code and data that is grouped together, such as a visual grid control or a library of math functions. This is different from object-oriented terminology, and can become very confusing when you develop some sort of COM object using an object-oriented language. Using PerlCtrl, you can create an object (the COM kind) wrapper that exposes one or more instances of a Perl class, each of which is a Perl object (the OO kind).

OLE: Microsoft’s COM-based technology for creating compound documents using linking and embedding.