Interface
In general usage, an interface is the point, area, or surface along which two substances or other qualitatively different things meet; it is also used metaphorically for the juncture between items.The verb to interface means to interconnect two or more entities at a common point or shared boundary, or to prepare either entity for that purpose.
The word interface also has the following specialized meanings:
- The user interface is the functional and sensorial attributes of a system (appliance, software, vehicle, etc.) that are relevant to its operation by users.
- In electronics and computer engineering, an interface may be
- The physical boundary between two subsystems or devices.
- A part or circuit in some subsystem that sends or receives signals to or from other subsystems: network interface, video interface, network card.
- A standard specifying a set of functional characteristics, common physical interconnection characteristics, and signal characteristics for the exchange of data or signals: USB interface, SCSI interface.
- In telecommunications, a point of interconnection between user terminal equipment and commercial communications facilities.
- In chemistry, it is the surface between two distinct phases in a heterogeneous mixture.
- In geology, it may be a surface or anomalus layer between two distincive geological epochs or rock types.
- In computer science and software engineering, an interface is a means for both abstraction and encapsulation through which constants, data types, procedures, and method signatures are defined, but the details of implementation are intentionally left undefined.
Interfaces in computer science
Examples of programming languages that provide interfaces:- Mesa (Xerox PARC, ca. 1978)
- Modula (Niklaus Wirth, ETH Zurich, 1980s)
- Modula-2 (Xerox PARC, ca. 1983)
- Oberon (Niklaus Wirth, ETH Zurich, 1980s)
- Modula-3 (DEC SRC, 1980s)
- Java
- C# (included in Microsoft DotNet).