Object Description Language

Object Description Language (ODL) was the original interface definition language created by Microsoft for specifying interfaces to be used in OLE Automation. It was a superset of the OMG IDL.{{cite book | title = Systems development methods for the next century | author = W. Gregory Wojtkowski | year = 1997 | page = 19 }}{{cite book | title = Systems development methods for databases, enterprise modeling, and workflow | author = Wita Wojtkowski | year = 1999 | page = 92}}{{cite book | title = Active Visual Basic 5.0 |author1=Guy Eddon |author2=Henry Eddon | year = 1997 | page = 106 | publisher = Microsoft Press | isbn = 1-57231-512-1 }}{{cite book | title = LabVIEW advanced programming techniques |author1=Rick Bitter |author2=Taqi Mohiuddin |author3=Matt Nawrocki | page = 256 | publisher = CRC Press | year = 2001 | isbn = 0-8493-2049-6 }}

Microsoft provided a utility mktyplib to compile ODL files.{{cite book | title = ActiveX controls inside out | author = Adam Denning | page = [https://archive.org/details/activexcontrolsi00denn/page/43 43] | edition = 2 | year = 1997 | publisher = Microsoft Press | isbn = 1-57231-350-1 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/activexcontrolsi00denn/page/43 }}

The ODL was merged into the Microsoft Interface Definition Language.