Stability of the communication format

[ppom0]

Hi there!

Thanks for this library. I'm writing a plugin system for reaction and using remoc was a breeze. It really doesn't get in the way, while being quite fast in my use-case.

I'd like my plugin system to be open to other languages than Rust, to ease adoption, and I'm wondering if you're interested in having an open and stable communication format?

It could be only for a subset of the API, remoc::{chmux, rch} for example.

I can't promise anything, but I'm motivated to help document it outside of 'read the code' if it's the case.

Otherwise I may write a crate with similar logic but much smaller surface, for my particular use-case (and credit remoc for its brilliant API of course :))

[surban]

I thought about documenting the communication format and since it has been mostly stable for the last years, I think it is feasible.

Indeed, documenting chmux should be straight-forward.

However, how do you want to deal with the transmitted types in remote channels? For example, how would you encode a Rust enum with fields in another language that does not support enum fields? Also, how would you statically ensure at compile-time that the data type definitions match in a multi-language project?

[ppom0]

Ok, cool!

For example, how would you encode a Rust enum with fields in another language that does not support enum fields?

This depends mostly on the serde serialization choice I'd say? I believe most enum tagging conventions are translatable in other languages.

Also, how would you statically ensure at compile-time that the data type definitions match in a multi-language project?

I wouldn't 😅

My use case is a plugin system, so it should be loosely coupled anyway.
The goal wouldn't be to have as good integration as with Rust-to-Rust projects, but at least to make it feasible!

For my plugin system, I'm currently using rtc but I could replace that with an explicit rch::mpsc channel sending a big enum (and call returns with embedded rch::oneshot senders).

Having then mpsc and oneshot be implemented over JSON in another language would suffice for simple communication purposes.