Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA)

The Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) is a standard defined by the Object Management Group (OMG) that enables software components written in multiple computer languages and running on multiple computers to work together.It is a mechanism in software for normalizing the method-call semantics between application objects that reside either in the same address space (application) or remote address space (same host, or remote host on a network).

CORBA uses an interface definition language (IDL) to specify the interfaces that objects will present to the outside world. CORBA then specifies a “mapping” from IDL to a specific implementation language like C++ or Java.

IDL:
An interface description language or interface definition language or IDL, is a specification language used to describe a software component's interface. IDLs describe an interface enabling communication between software components that do not share a language - for example, between components written in C++ and components written in Java.