Google Open Sources Its Data Interchange Format

A number of readers have noted Google's open sourcing of their internal data interchange format, called Protocol Buffers (here's the code and the doc). Google elevator statement for Protocol Buffers is "a language-neutral, platform-neutral, extensible way of serializing structured data for use in communications protocols, data storage, and more." It's the way data is formatted to move around inside of Google. Betanews spotlights some of Protocol Buffers' contrasts with XML and IDL, with which it is most comparable. Google's blogger claims, "And, yes, it is very fast — at least an order of magnitude faster than XML."

An order of magnitude over XML?

[Anonymous Coward]

So is, well, just about anything.

Likely story!

[TheRealMindChild]

"Google's blogger claims, "And, yes, it is very fast -- at least an order of magnitude faster than XML."

That is just because they aren't using enough XML!

I bet ...

[Anonymous Coward]

... it requires piping data through google's servers for data mining and ad injection purposes.

Re:Likely story!

[jandrese]

Yeah, I mean XML didn't earn its reputation for being lightning fast and byte efficient for nothing...

Re:No PERL API ??!!??

[Shut the fuck up!]

perl -e 'print "Shut the fuck up!\n"'

Re:An order of magnitude over XML?

[alexgieg]

An order of magnitude over XML? So is, well, just about anything.

Well, let's also not forget that the meaning of the expression "an order of magnitude" depends strongly from the numeric base you're using.

Re:Now just release Goobuntu...

[fph il quozientatore]

Here, fixed the typo for you:

Now just release Boobuntu...
... and we'll be happy

Re:I bet ...

[eddy]

Hey, that's a pretty cool concept.

$ cat spanish.txt | http://google.com/language_tools/tr?ESEN [google.com] | grep "terrorist"

I'm sure I'm years late to the party. <sigh>

Re:Have they ever heard of BER/DER?

[Dan Berlin]

Uh, having one of the OpenSSL guys working down the hall, he certainly said he would shoot himself if he had to work with ASN.1 again.

Re:How about C?

[vigmeister]

Well, I can't translate C++ to C until after it is DECLASSIFIED...

*rimshot*

Cheers!

I have an XML alternative format too.

[IGnatius T Foobar]

I have my own data format that is an alternative to XML as well. It works by normalizing the data into records which all contain the same number of fields, and placing an agreed-upon delimiter between each field. The end of the record is indicated by a newline.

I think this "delimited" format has a lot of potential.

Re:An order of magnitude over XML?

[kriston]

Oh, I'm a little ashamed that I recognize this message as CORBA flamebait.

Re:An order of magnitude over XML?

[sconeu]

Nobody makes jokes in Base 13 [wikipedia.org]!

Re:Likely story!

[Anonymous Coward]

Hi Google,

Is there any library to serialize that Protocol Buffers thing to XML?

Thanks.

Elevator Statement

[somethingwicked]

Google elevator statement for Protocol Buffers is "a language-neutral, platform-neutral, extensible way of serializing structured data for use in communications protocols, data storage, and more."

Christ, I hope I'm never in an elevator with someone who would consider THAT an elevator statement.