Protocol Specification
Table of Contents
Background
What's a Protobuff?
From Google - https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/
Protocol buffers are Google's language-neutral, platform-neutral, extensible mechanism for serializing structured data.
Why Protobuffs
Protocol Buffers are a way of encoding structured data in an efficient yet extensible format.
From Google - https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/overview
Protocol buffers have many advantages over XML for serializing structured data. Protocol buffers are:
- simpler,
- 3 to 10 times smaller,
- 20 to 100 times faster,
- less ambiguous and
- generate data access classes that are easier to use programmatically
But the biggest benefit to Catalyst Network is the interoperability offered by protobuffs. Protobuffs are implemented in a variety of languages and allow us to quickly generate code for you to interact and build upon the Catalyst Network! No more figuring out some obscure language or having to learn snowflaked schemas.
Install
To install protobuffs on Ubuntu:
- Make sure you grab the latest version
$ curl -OL https://github.com/google/protobuf/releases/download/v3.2.0/protoc-3.2.0-linux-x86_64.zip
- Unzip
$ unzip protoc-3.2.0-linux-x86_64.zip -d protoc3
- Move protoc to /usr/local/bin/
$ sudo mv protoc3/bin/* /usr/local/bin/
- Move protoc3/include to /usr/local/include/
$ sudo mv protoc3/include/* /usr/local/include/
- Optional: change owner
$ sudo chwon [USER] /usr/local/bin/protoc$ sudo chwon -R [USER] /usr/local/include/google
Usage
TODO. We don't have this section done yet. If you'd like to help us by opening a PR for it, please do so!
Contribute
Take a look at our organization-wide Contributing Guide. You'll find most of your questions answered there.
As far as code goes, we would be happy to accept PRs! If you want to work on something, it'd be good to talk beforehand to make sure nobody else is working on it. You can reach us on Discord, or in the issues section.
Please note that we have a Code of Conduct, and that all activity in the @catalyst-network organization falls under it. Read it when you get the chance, as being part of this community means that you agree to abide by it. Thanks.
License
GPL © 2019 Catalyst Network
