| #### The XOM Application Programming Interface XOM is an interface for creating, deleting, and accessing objects containing information. It is an object-oriented architecture - each object belongs to a particular class, and classes can be derived from other classes, inheriting the characteristics of the original class. The representation of the object is transparent to the programmer; the object can only be manipulated through the XOM interface, not directly. XOM is used to create the objects that make up the Directory Service. XOM defines basic data types, such as Boolean, string, object, and so on. It defines an information architecture, including concepts such as objects, their attributes, and their classes. It also provides definitions of routines for manipulating objects. ####