

XML vs. Google's new protobufs - edw519
http://www.cafeconleche.org/oldnews/news2008July8.html

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bayareaguy
_However although I do see wire format documentation on Google's site, I don't
see an actual BNF grammar anywhere and that makes me nervous._

So what? The .proto file may not be a BNF grammar but it tells an application
what to expect and presumably the generated code can check for validity. e.g.

    
    
      message Person {
        required int32 id = 1;
        required string name = 2;
        optional string email = 3;
      }
    

Is that really any different from

    
    
      <Person> ::= <id> <name> | <id> <name> <email>
      ...
    
    ?

------
moocha
Mr. Harold is missing the point here. Protocol buffers are _not_ meant to
replace XML as a "public" API transport, they are meant to replace it on
backend solutions, where one entity controls both endpoints.

