(2008-07-10) Google Protocol Buffers

Google released its ProtocolBuffers project as Open Source. Binary serialization for RPC.

Dare Obasanjo notes that such things can make sense when you control both endpoints and can afford some tighter coupling. Saying it's a different Context than Steve Vinoski's arguments against RPC (in favor of ReST).

Bill De Hora considers options for passing control messages among servers: he still thinks binary objects are a bad idea, even if you use an RPC model (1 of his 3 options is RPC, the others are ReST/HTTP and XMPP PubSub).

De Witt Clinton comments that ReST is really only good for documents and collections: RPC is not state exchange.

Sept'2008 update: Roy Fielding notes an OsCon session arguing that XMPP-based PubSub scales better than ReST, and argues on the basis of both tech and economics.