JavaBeans is certainly not the first component architecture to come along. Microsoft’s ActiveX technology is based upon COM, their component object model. ActiveX offers an alternative component architecture for software targeted at the various Windows platforms. So how do you choose one of these technologies over the other? Organizational, cultural, and technical issues all come into play when making this decision. ActiveX and JavaBeans are not mutually exclusive of each other—Microsoft has embraced Java technology with products like Internet Explorer and Visual J++, and Sun seems to have recognized that the desktop is dominated by Windows and has targeted Win32 as a strategic platform for Java. It is not in anyone’s best interest to choose one technology to the exclusion of another. Both are powerful component technologies. I think we should choose a technology because it supports the work we are doing, and does so in a way that meets the needs of the customer.
The most important question is how Beans will be used by containers that are designed specifically to contain ActiveX controls. Certainly, all Beans will not also be ActiveX controls by default. To address the need to integrate Beans into the world of ActiveX, an ActiveX Bridge is available that maps the properties, methods, and events exposed by the Bean into the corresponding mechanisms in COM. This topic is covered in detail in Chapter 11.
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