[usrnm]

At least, Google has the resources and the will to support all their implementations in the long run. I don't always agree with what they do there, but at least I can be sure that it will still work ten years from now. At some point it becomes more important than implementation details

[crabbone]

I don't know where you get the confidence... When it comes to Protobuf, we are now at version 3 of the format. It's been around for a while, but I'm old enough to have implemented v2 parser myself... v2 is partially supported in v3, even though the support isn't documented. But, emphasis on partially. Some things are no longer there.

So... I'd say that your faith is unfounded. And, in general, there's no reason to believe that a commercial entity will commit to supporting any particular technology if that doesn't generate them a profit. Standard is better.

[joshuamorton]

It should be noted that

1. Proto2 isn't actually deprecated or anything and is still widely used and supported

2. https://protobuf.dev/editions/overview/ replace and improve on the versioning concept and basically entirely remove the issue of versioning since versions and features can be incrementally enabled on a per-file and per-field basis.

aaand I guess 3: protobuf is absolutely critical to Google's profit.

[crabbone]

It might be uncalled for, but let me use a philosophical reference: you are trying to derive ought from is. Many tried to prove it to be possible, but most face such propositions with skepticism.

Let me give you some examples of things that were absolutely detrimental to the business of a large company that vanished in a matter of years if not months:

* Adobe Flash. Flash players was for a few years the most installed program on Earth. It vanished without a trace, dropped like a hot potato by everyone who swore they will use it for ever and ever.

* ASP Classic, especially in combination with VBScript. It was the hottest thing twenty (or am I getting too old?) years ago. Everyone was selling books and courses on ASP Classic, probably half the Internet was written in it... and it's gone.

* I expect x86 ISA to eventually die and be completely replaced by ARM or maybe something else. Some big players are already jumping off the bandwagon, and it looks like things are only going to get worse.

There were, of course, more, but I think these three examples should suffice. If tomorrow Google comes up with a better format, or, for whatever reason, tanks its business, or decides to switch to vertical farming in Arizona... say goodby to Protobuf. They owe you zilch. They never promised you anything. You were allowed to use their tech because it was convenient to them, but once it's not, you will be holding the bag.

This is the difference between a standard and a spec published by the designer. The designer is free to make any changes they see fit, up to and including completely destroying their work. They can pull the run from under you making the users pay for the use, they can make modifications to their tools that will require from you to buy things you wouldn't normally want to buy. The possibilities are endless.