Semicolony ELI5 · comic

gRPC.

Two services that studied the same rulebook once, then speak in dense shorthand forever after.

  1. Dear server: users, please.
    { "users": [...] } anyone can read it
    1

    JSON spells out every field name inside every message — that self-description is exactly what makes it readable.

  2. Page two of the request…
    bulky, slow to parse reading…
    2

    The readability is paid for on both ends, in bytes shipped and in time spent parsing text.

  3. Same book, both of us.
    .proto same rulebook
    3

    The .proto file is the single agreement both sides compile from, so a field cannot quietly mean two things.

  4. Says plenty, weighs nothing.
    0x1A4F small & fast
    4

    With names settled in advance, the wire carries only values — a fraction of the bytes, decoded without guessing.

  5. getUser(42). Done.
    service A service B getUser() like calling next door
    5

    Generated stubs hide the network entirely; the remote call sits in your code like any local function.

  6. Is this… math?
    browser 0x1A?! 0x1A4F
    6

    Outsiders never learned the rulebook — a browser needs a translating proxy to join this conversation.

A plain letter anyone can read, versus two machines speaking a tight private shorthand.
Semicolony semicolony.dev/eli5/grpc/comic
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