Lite³: A JSON-Compatible Zero-Copy Serialization Format

This is a C# port of Lite³.

Current Status

Note that this project is in beta status, as specifications are being defined for Lite³.

This port currently tracks upstream ac7fc19.

Feature Parity

This port includes two APIs, which correspond closely to the C impementation:

• Buffer API: for working directly against fixed Span<byte> buffers.
• Context API: for working against a resizable buffer, which is internally managed by ArrayPool<byte>.
• Try and non-Try overloads for exceptionless use if desired.

These APIs are supported by a Source Generator against the core implementation, which closely matches the reference C implementation.

Additionally, feature-parity is provided in general, with additional features specific to .NET.

• JSON decoding and encoding
  • Uses System.Text.Json's Utf8JsonReader and Utf8JsonWriter internally.
  • Asynchronous decode/encode using System.IO.Pipelines's PipeReader and PipeWriter, respectively.
  • Synchronous decode/encode using Span<byte> and System.Buffers.IBufferWriter<byte>, respectively.
• Enumeration by foreach against a struct enumerator.

Code Example

The following example using the Buffer API outputs Max Retries: 3.

var buffer = new byte[1024];

Lite3.InitializeObject(buffer, out var position);
Lite3.SetString(buffer, ref position, 0, "app_name"u8, "demo_app"u8);
Lite3.SetLong(buffer, ref position, 0, "max_retries"u8, 3);
Lite3.SetBool(buffer, ref position, 0, "debug_mode"u8, false);

var maxRetries = Lite3.GetLong(buffer, 0, "max_retries"u8);

Console.WriteLine($"Max Retries: {maxRetries}");

The equivalent Context API code is below.

using var context = Lite3Context.Create();

context
    .InitializeObject()
    .SetString(0, "app_name"u8, "demo_app"u8)
    .SetLong(0, "max_retries"u8, 3)
    .SetBool(0, "debug_mode"u8, false);

var maxRetries = context.GetLong(0, "max_retries"u8);

Console.WriteLine($"Max Retries: {maxRetries}");

See ContextApiExamples.cs and BufferApiExamples.cs for more examples.

Attribution

This project is a C# port of the original Lite³ C implementation by Elias de Jong. All credit for the original design belongs to the original authors.