Interface description language

Aninterface description languageorinterface definition language(IDL) is a generic term for a language that lets a program or object written in one language communicate with another program written in an unknown language. IDLs are usually used to describedata typesand interfaces in alanguage-independentway, for example, between those written inC++and those written inJava.

Representation of different software components for performing a hypothetical holiday reservation inUML

IDLs are commonly used inremote procedure callsoftware. In these cases the machines at either end of thelinkmay be using differentoperating systemsand computer languages. IDLs offer a bridge between the two different systems.

Software systems based on IDLs includeSun'sONC RPC,The Open Group'sDistributed Computing Environment,IBM'sSystem Object Model,theObject Management Group'sCORBA(which implements OMG IDL, an IDL based on DCE/RPC) andData Distribution Service,Mozilla'sXPCOM,Microsoft'sMicrosoft RPC(which evolved intoCOMandDCOM),Facebook'sThriftandWSDLfor Web services.

Examples

• AIDL:Java-based, forAndroid;supports local and remote procedure calls, can be accessed from native applications by calling throughJava Native Interface(JNI)
• Apache Thrift:fromApache,originally developed byFacebook
• Avro IDL:for the Apache Avro system
• ASN.1
• Cap'n Proto:created by its former maintainer, avoids some of the perceived shortcomings ofProtocol Buffers.
• Concise Data Definition Language(CDDL, RFC 8610):A Notation forCBORandJSONdata structures
• CortoScript:Describe data and/or interfaces for systems that requireSemantic interoperability
• Etch:Cisco's Etch Cross-platform Service Description Language
• Extensible Data Notation(EDN):Clojuredata format, similar to JSON
• FlatBuffers:Serialization format fromGooglesupporting zero-copy deserialization
• Franca IDL:the open-source Franca interface definition language
• FIDL:Interface description language for theFuchsia Operating Systemdesigned for writing app components inC,C++,Dart,GoandRust.
• IDL specification language:the original Interface Description Language
• IPL:Imandra Protocol Language
• JSONWeb-Service Protocol (JSON-WSP)
• Lightweight Imaging Device Interface Language
• Microsoft Interface Definition Language(MIDL): the Microsoft extension of OMG IDL to add support forComponent Object Model(COM) andDistributed Component Object Model(DCOM)
• OMG IDL:standardized byObject Management Group,used inCORBA(for DCE/RPC services) andDDS(fordata modeling), also selected by the W3C for exposing the DOM of XML, HTML, and CSS documents
• OpenAPI Specification:a standard forWeb APIs,used bySwaggerand other technologies.
• Open Service Interface Definitions
• Protocol Buffers:Google's IDL
• RESTful Service Description Language(RSDL)
• Smithy:An AWS-invented protocol-agnostic interface definition language.
• Specification Language forInternet Communications Engine(Ice:Slice)
• Universal Network Objects:OpenOffice.org's component model
• Web Application Description Language(WADL)
• Web IDLbyWHATWG:can be used to describe interfaces that are intended to be implemented in web browsers
• Web Services Description Language(WSDL)
• XCB:X protocol description language forX Window System
• Cross Platform Interface Description Language (XPIDL): Mozilla's way to specify XPCOM interfaces

See also

• Component-based software engineering
• Interface-based programming
• Java Interface Definition Language
• List of computing and IT abbreviations
• Universal Interface Language
• User interface markup language

External links

• Documenting Software Architecture: Documenting Interfaces(PDF)
• OMG Specification of OMG IDL
• OMG Tutorial on OMG IDL