Simplified interface mapping

Interface Definition Language (IDL)

Another fundamental piece of the CORBA architecture is the use of the Interface Definition Language (IDL). IDL, which specifies interfaces between CORBA objects, is instrumental in ensuring CORBA's language independence. Because interfaces described in IDL can be mapped to any programming language, CORBA applications and components are thus independent of the language(s) used to implement them. In other words, a client written in C++ can communicate with a server written in Java, which in turn can communicate with another server written in COBOL, and so forth.
One important thing to remember about IDL is that it is not an implementation language. That is, you can't write applications in IDL. The sole purpose of IDL is to define interfaces; providing implementations for these interfaces is performed using some other language. When you study IDL more closely on Day 3, you'll learn more about this and other assorted facts about IDL.

Interfaces: references, inheritance, and operations

MyIdl.idl:
  module MyMod{
    interface MyInterface{
      };
  };

All elements defined in a module are in the same package.
All the auxilliary classes generated for the interface are also in this package

MyInterace.java:
  package MyMod;
  public interface MyInterface
    extends org.omg.CORBA.Object{
  }

A Java interface is generated for the IDL interface. A number of auxiliary classes are generated as well.