8th July 2008
Protocol Buffers: Google's Data Interchange Format. Open sourced today. Highly efficient binary protocol for storing and transmitting structured data between C++, Java and Python. Uses a .proto file describing the data structure which is compiled to classes in those languages for serializing and deserializing. 3-10 times smaller and 20-100 times faster than XML.
Recent articles
- Adding TILs, releases, museums, tools and research to my blog - 20th February 2026
- Two new Showboat tools: Chartroom and datasette-showboat - 17th February 2026
- Deep Blue - 15th February 2026