Summary

COM has abstractions much like those of the C++ standard library. Collections maintain lists of things, often objects. Enumerators enable navigation over the list of things maintained in a collection. To standardize access to collections and enumerators, they have a standard protocol. These standards aren't required, but if they are followed, they make an object model programmer's life easier because the usage is familiar. Implementing an object model is a matter of defining the higher-level object, the lower-level object, and the collection that joins the two. ATL implements both collection and enumeration interfaces, if you're not afraid of the type definitions required to make it all work.