Interface Definition Language


Interface Definition Language

(IDL) 1. An OSF standard for defining RPC stubs.

2. Part of an effort by Project DOE at SunSoft, Inc. tointegrate distributed object technology into the Solarisoperating system. IDL provides the standard interfacebetween objects, and is the base mechanism for objectinteraction.

The Object Management Group's CORBA 1.1 (Common ObjectRequest Broker Architecture) specifies the interface betweenobjects. IDL (Interface Definition Language) is the basemechanism for object interaction.

The SunSoft OMG IDL CFE (Compiler Front End) version 1.2provides a complete framework for building CORBA 1.1-compliantpreprocessors for OMG IDL. To use it you write a back-end. Acomplete compiler of IDL would translate IDL into clientside and server side routines for remote communication inthe same manner as Sun's current RPCL compiler. The IDLcompiler front end allows integration of new back ends whichcan translate IDL to various programming languages.

Several companies including Sunsoft are building back ends tothe CFE which translate IDL into target languages,e.g. Pascal or C++, in the context of plannedCORBA-compliant products. IDL requires C++ 2.1.

Not to be confused with any of the other IDLs.

E-mail: .

ftp://omg.org/pub/omg_idl_cfe.tar.Z,ftp://omg.org/pub/OMG_IDL_CFE_1.2/.

Telephone: Mache Creeger, SunSoft, Inc. +1 (415) 336 5884.