Adding more `DL' to IDL: Towards more knowledgeable component inter-operability

In an open component marketplace, interface description languages (IDL) provide consumers with only a weak guarantee that a software service will work in a particular context as anticipated. An approach based on a family of formalisms called description logics (DL) is presented with three examples of the use of DLs to augment IDL: for the CORBA Cos Relationship service; for capturing information models described using STEP Express, the ISO standard language used in the manufacturing domain; and constraints involving methods. DLs offer decidable and efficient reasoning algorithms, while excelling at modeling natural domains. Thus, they are well suited for specifying application- and domain-specific services.