- 2074 Chaitra · 2 marks
Short note: IDL
Short answer
IDL (Interface Definition Language) is a language-independent notation that specifies a remote object’s interface — operations, parameters (in, out, inout), attributes, and exceptions — without implementation details. An IDL compiler generates client stubs and server skeletons for a target language, enabling interoperability between clients and servers written in different languages (e.g., C++ client, Java server).
Write a short note on IDL (Interface Definition Language).
Interface Definition Language (IDL) is a language-independent notation for describing the interface of a remote object or service: the operations it offers, their parameters (in, out, inout), return types, attributes and exceptions. It specifies what an object does, not how.
Key points:
- Used by CORBA (OMG IDL); similar languages exist for DCE RPC, Sun RPC (XDR
.xfiles) and web services (WSDL). - An IDL compiler maps the interface into a programming language and generates the client stub and server skeleton, which handle marshalling.
- Supports modules, interfaces, inheritance, basic types, structs, sequences, arrays and exceptions.
- Enables interoperability between a Java client and a C++ server, since both are generated from the same definition.
Example:
interface Calc {
long add(in long a, in long b);
};
✓ Answer checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort)
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