Writing COM components in .NET

[balabaster]

I've written a COM component in .NET which works just fine, but I have a couple of overloaded methods, both of which I need to be able to access via COM. When I compile my code it automatically appends _2, _3 etc to the end of the method name. Is there any way to expose the methods using a friendlier name of my choosing? i.e.

ConnectEx instead of Connect_2?

Cheers

[Plater]

Instead of overloads, can you just name them differently?

[balabaster]

Instead of overloads, can you just name them differently?

Well, I could, but I would like to keep my code consistent for my other .NET applications. I'm really just extending my classes to be available to COM and I would rather not add a whole bunch of functions that call my methods as one of my colleagues suggested...

i.e.

<ComVisible(True)> _
Public Function Connect() As Boolean
  '....blah
End Function
 
<ComVisible(True)> _
Public Function ConnectEx(ByVal Address As String) As Boolean
  Return Connect(Address)
End Function
 
<ComVisible(False)> _
Public Function Connect(ByVal Address As String) As Boolean
  '....blah
End Function

Because then when I call my class from .NET code, now I've got a whole bunch of irrelevant classes showing up. It's just ugly and I was looking for something more elegant.

It would be much nicer if I could just keep my regular overloaded functions in some manner but decorate them with some attribute described by:

<ComVisible(True), ExposeAs("Connect")> _
Public Function Connect() As boolean
  '....do stuff
End Function
 
<ComVisible(True), ExposeAs("ConnectEx")> _
Public Function Connect(ByVal Address As String) As Boolean
  '....do other stuff
End Function

I obviously know that ExposeAs isn't a valid attribute...but is there not some attribute that explicitly defines the name by which a method is exposed to COM thus overriding the regular .NET method name?