This directory contains the C# Protocol Buffers runtime library. Status: Beta - ready for external testing ========================================= Usage ===== The easiest way how to use C# protobufs is via the `Google.Protobuf` NuGet package. Just add the NuGet package to your VS project. Besides C# runtime library, the NuGet package also contains precompiled version of `protoc.exe` and a copy of well known `.proto` files under the package's `tools` directory. To generate C# files from your `.proto` files, invoke `protoc` with the `--csharp_out` option. Supported platforms =================== The runtime library is built as a portable class library, supporting: - .NET 4.5 - Windows 8 - Windows Phone Silverlight 8 - Windows Phone 8.1 - .NET Core You should be able to use Protocol Buffers in Visual Studio 2012 and all later versions. This includes all code generated by `protoc`, which only uses features from C# 3 and earlier. Building ======== Open the `src/Google.Protobuf.sln` solution in Visual Studio 2015 or later. You should be able to run the NUnit test from Test Explorer (you might need to install NUnit Visual Studio add-in). Although *users* of this project are only expected to have Visual Studio 2012 or later, *developers* of the library are required to have Visual Studio 2015 or later, as the library uses C# 6 features in its implementation. These features have no impact when using the compiled code - they're only relevant when building the `Google.Protobuf` assembly. History of C# protobufs ======================= This subtree was originally imported from https://github.com/jskeet/protobuf-csharp-port and represents the latest development version of C# protobufs, that will now be developed and maintained by Google. All the development will be done in open, under this repository (https://github.com/google/protobuf). The previous project differs from this project in a number of ways: - The old code only supported proto2; the new code only supports proto3 (so no unknown fields, no required/optional distinction, no extensions) - The old code was based on immutable message types and builders for them - The old code did not support maps or `oneof` - The old code had its own JSON representation, whereas the new code uses the standard protobuf JSON representation - The old code had no notion of the "well-known types" which have special support in the new code - The old project supported some older platforms (such as older versions of Silverlight) which are not currently supported in the new project