What is a .RIDL file?
A .RIDL file is a special kind of computer file used by people who make apps for phones and computers. It's made by a program called Embarcadero RAD Studio, which helps developers create the parts of an app that users interact with, like buttons and menus, for different devices such as Windows computers, Macs, iPhones, and Android phones.
The .RIDL file keeps important details about the app's components, like the different parts it can interact with (objects and interfaces), the categories these parts belong to (object classes), and the actions these parts can do (member functions). These files are written in a special code language called Restricted Interface Definition Language (RIDL), which is designed to be easy to read and change.
You can open and look at a .RIDL file using any basic text editing program because the information is saved in a simple text format. However, to make full use of the file and work on app development, you would typically use Embarcadero RAD Studio. This is because the studio has special tools that understand the .RIDL format and can help turn the information in the file into a working part of an app.
RIDL files were introduced in 2009 as an improvement over an older format, making it easier for developers to work with the data. When an app is being finished up (or "built"), a tool that comes with RAD Studio called GenTLB.exe turns the .RIDL file into a .TLB file, which is a necessary step in making the app ready to use.
In summary, if you're making an app with RAD Studio, you might work with .RIDL files to define how your app interacts with the user. You can open these files with a simple text editor, but to really use them in app development, you'll need RAD Studio.
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