CODEWITHSUNDEEP
protocol-buffers
Wojtek
Wojtek

Reputation: 1530

Where does the name "protocol buffers" come from?

Where does the name "protocol buffers" come from? Does it mean anything, is there any logic to it?

Upvotes: 5

Views: 220

Answers (1)

Marc Gravell
Marc Gravell

Reputation: 1062915

The FAQ covers this: https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/faq#why-the-name-protocol-buffers

Why the name "Protocol Buffers"? The name originates from the early days of the format, before we had the protocol buffer compiler to generate classes for us. At the time, there was a class called ProtocolBuffer which actually acted as a buffer for an individual method. Users would add tag/value pairs to this buffer individually by calling methods like AddValue(tag, value). The raw bytes were stored in a buffer which could then be written out once the message had been constructed.

Since that time, the "buffers" part of the name has lost its meaning, but it is still the name we use. Today, people usually use the term "protocol message" to refer to a message in an abstract sense, "protocol buffer" to refer to a serialized copy of a message, and "protocol message object" to refer to an in-memory object representing the parsed message.

Upvotes: 3

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