Protobufia

Protobufia is a data serialization format and schema language designed for efficient binary data interchange in distributed systems and client applications. Developed as an alternative and extension of existing schema-driven formats, Protobufia emphasizes compact message encoding, fast parsing, and language neutrality.

Protobufia messages consist of fields identified by numeric tags. Fields can be optional, repeated, or nested messages. The format also supports enums, maps, and oneof-like unions. A Protobufia schema, written in the Protobufia Schema Definition Language (PSDL), declares message types and the allowed field types and tag numbers.

The encoding uses a compact binary wire format based on varint encoding for integers, length-delimited encoding for strings and embedded messages, and fixed-size encodings for certain types. The wire format is designed for forward and backward compatibility; unknown fields are preserved when possible and ignored when appropriate.

Implementation and use: Reference implementations exist in several languages, and code generators produce type-safe bindings from PSDL definitions. Protobufia is intended for RPC systems, event streams, and telemetry, where small payloads and low latency matter.

Comparison and limitations: Protobufia is similar in spirit to Protocol Buffers and Avro, but with its own schema language and evolution rules. It requires a defined schema to serialize data, which can complicate ad hoc data interchange and tooling around schema changes. Human readability is limited due to the binary encoding.

History: Protobufia originated in a joint research initiative in the early 2020s as an alternative to existing binary formats, with ongoing development and adoption in selected projects.

See also: Protocol Buffers, Avro, Thrift, Cap'n Proto.