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you just re-invented XML + Schemas, just in binary format. We had all this in the 90s and early 2000s. JSON became popular for a good reason.

tiew9Vii 5y ago
Good reason being JSON is trivial to parse in the browser and webapps exploded in use? It's a valid reason but that doesn't mean something with a strong schema that has a good user experience is bad? There's nothing fundamentally wrong with XML + Schemas just they are a hassle to deal with being verbose and more effort generating/parsing. XML still has a place it's just forgotten and not cool anymore. Personally I like XML, maybe not for webapps message format but it's properties still hold today. Protobuf / Thrift etc are probably a evolution of XML+Schemas on the web using a binary format. They are less verbose and Javascript isn't the Javascript of 15 years ago so also easy to work with in the browser. It seems my original comment is down voted which is fair enough. I've been generally surprised at how much better an experience all round it has been switching to Protobuf instead of using JSON. My code is easier, there's less of it, it's more performant, it's easy to share across the backend/frontend layers, it has a long list of languages it can be used from with zero effort. I was a bit pessimistic about it but had a API I needed to save bandwidth on for end users so tried switching from JSON as an experiment. I expected it to be a hassle but it turned in to the complete opposite. Any REST service I create going forward JSON won't be my first choice. Protobuf is simpler to work with in the browser (no manual parsing/typing the wrong field) and server side, it's also far more efficient. For clients they get evolution support, can download prebuilt parsers/deserilisers or create there own from published schema definitions, I see it as win win all round and no drawbacks. SOAP is probably closer to gRPC?

tiew9Vii 5y ago

Good reason being JSON is trivial to parse in the browser and webapps exploded in use? It's a valid reason but that doesn't mean something with a strong schema that has a good user experience is bad? There's nothing fundamentally wrong with XML + Schemas just they are a hassle to deal with being verbose and more effort generating/parsing. XML still has a place it's just forgotten and not cool anymore. Personally I like XML, maybe not for webapps message format but it's properties still hold today. Protobuf / Thrift etc are probably a evolution of XML+Schemas on the web using a binary format. They are less verbose and Javascript isn't the Javascript of 15 years ago so also easy to work with in the browser. It seems my original comment is down voted which is fair enough. I've been generally surprised at how much better an experience all round it has been switching to Protobuf instead of using JSON. My code is easier, there's less of it, it's more performant, it's easy to share across the backend/frontend layers, it has a long list of languages it can be used from with zero effort. I was a bit pessimistic about it but had a API I needed to save bandwidth on for end users so tried switching from JSON as an experiment. I expected it to be a hassle but it turned in to the complete opposite. Any REST service I create going forward JSON won't be my first choice. Protobuf is simpler to work with in the browser (no manual parsing/typing the wrong field) and server side, it's also far more efficient. For clients they get evolution support, can download prebuilt parsers/deserilisers or create there own from published schema definitions, I see it as win win all round and no drawbacks. SOAP is probably closer to gRPC?