Protocol Buffers

infobox software
name = Protocol Buffers

developer = Google
released = 7 July 2008
latest_release_version = 2.0.2
latest_release_date = 3 October 2008
latest_preview_version =
latest_preview_date =
operating_system = Any
platform = Cross-platform
status = Active
genre = serialization format and library, IDL compiler
license = Apache License 2.0
website = http://code.google.com/apis/protocolbuffers/

Protocol Buffers is a serialization format with an interface description language developed by Google. An implementation for C++, Java and Python is available under a free software, open source license. Perl [cite web | url=http://groups.google.com/group/protobuf-perl/browse_thread/thread/e72d1a988a737f1 | title=Perl bindings | author=Brad Fitzpatrick | accessdate=2008-07-08] and PHP [cite web | url=http://code.google.com/p/pb4php/ | title=Protocol Buffers for PHP | author=Nikolai Kordulla | accessdate=2008-07-28] implementations are under development.

The design goals for Protocol Buffers emphasized simplicity and performance. In particular, it was designed to be faster than XML (no reproducible comparisons are publicly available to confirm this, however). Protocol Buffers are very similar to Facebook’s Thrift protocol, but are pure data and do not describe services.

Prior to the release as open source, Protocol Buffers had been widely used at Google for storing and interchanging all kinds of structured information. Protocol Buffers serve as a basis for a custom RPC system that is used for practically all inter-machine communication at Google. [cite web | url=http://steve.vinoski.net/blog/2008/07/13/protocol-buffers-leaky-rpc/#comment-1093 | title=A response to Steve Vinoski | author=Kenton Varda | accessdate=2008-07-14]

Notes and references

External links

* [http://code.google.com/apis/protocolbuffers/ Official project page] at code.google.com
* [http://code.google.com/p/protobuf/ Another official home page] at Google Open Source project hosting

ee also

* Facebook’s Thrift
* Cisco’s Etch