-1 Given that I was on the team that started this initiative, I will naturally have an inclination to say 'No'.
I don't know if I would go as far as removing this project/initiative out of Geode. I understand that the way that was used to hook into Geode was less the perfect, and I fully support removing those and possibly replacing them with viable alternatives, if that makes the core Geode project better. What I don't support is the removal of the code completely on the basis that it isn't used by anyone (we have no proof either direction). I think that the addition of this adapter is beneficial to the Geode. Given that lack of documentation relating to the Geode wire protocol, the barrier of entry for anyone else to connect to Geode is HUGE. The Protobuf initiative was the effort to lower the bar of entry for other languages to be able to talk to Geode. But by removing it, we make Geode less accessible. I think the lack of focus on this effort can also attribute to the lack of use. As @Dave pointed out, there is little to no documentation impact for the adapter. Which means, we (Geode) have failed at marketing this feature. I propose that the Protobuf adapter NOT to be removed, but rather reworked so that it fits more in line with our other extensions like Redis and Memcache. Yes, we would have to maintain the code, but it is not like we haven't been doing this with the Memcache or Redis extension for a MUCH longer period than what we have for Protobuf. If we keep Protobuf, we need promote it, so we should document this adapter. Alternatively, if we remove Protobuf, we put effort into documented our wire protocol, so that Geode wire protocol is not a closed box and a HUGE barrier for anyone wanting to connect to Geode. If we vote to permanently remove the Protobuf from Geode, I want to suggest that we put to vote the removal of many other projects in Geode on the basis of lack of adoption: * Geode-Rebalancer * Geode-Memcache * Geode-Connector * Geode-Redis * Geode Offheap These are projects that we maintain without any (known) users actively using these features. --Udo On 3/24/21, 2:16 AM, "Bruce Schuchardt" <bru...@vmware.com> wrote: Hi folks, We’ve had an experimental client/server interface in Geode that no-one to my knowledge is using. We’re testing it with every build and are having to make changes to it to keep it up to date with the rest of the project. The last change of substance to the geode-protobuf sub-project, for instance, was in 2018 but that’s been followed by many incidental commits. GEM-8997<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fissues.apache.org%2Fjira%2Fbrowse%2FGEODE-8997&data=04%7C01%7Cudo%40vmware.com%7C14baaa5ed45643739bfa08d8ee0eb001%7Cb39138ca3cee4b4aa4d6cd83d9dd62f0%7C0%7C0%7C637521094144833122%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=RdCdOIkVLn7GuOKKAtaxlG3Q%2FeSAnnPC43g7Gvanglo%3D&reserved=0> was opened to have the sub-projects for this interface removed. I’ve prepared a pull request<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fapache%2Fgeode%2Fpull%2F6168&data=04%7C01%7Cudo%40vmware.com%7C14baaa5ed45643739bfa08d8ee0eb001%7Cb39138ca3cee4b4aa4d6cd83d9dd62f0%7C0%7C0%7C637521094144833122%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=TOVed%2BZx054BpO%2BTIkPgL9yA%2BX6VRSARFCWlw7cFmUc%3D&reserved=0> to remove it and would like to get consensus to move forward with that effort.