Introduction

Protobuf-cpp11 adds C++11/C++14 features to Google's Protocol Buffers.

Protocol Buffers is widely used in Google internally and many projects are still using C++98 compiler, so at current state it can be a slow process for Google to switch to C++11 for Protocol Buffers.

This repository is to enable C++11 features for people who already using C++11 compiler in their projects.

Installation and Usage

All new features are added by introducing new options without breaking backward compatibility, so installation and usage are completely the same as Google's Protocol Buffers.

Note that C++11 compiler is not mandatory. These new features will only be activated by options explicitly, so you will only need C++11 compiler when enabling C++11 features.

Features

• scoped enum

scoped enum

(like enum class in C++11)

option name: scoped

By default enum is not scoped, for example compiling following message will generate an error:

message Counter {
  enum Status {
    start = 0;
    stop = 1;
  }
  required int32 stop = 1;  // error: duplicated name defined in enum Status
}

Thanks to Warren Falk, now it is supported by a new option "scoped" in enum:

message Counter {
  enum Status {
    option scoped = true;
    start = 0;
    stop = 1;
  }
  required int32 stop = 1;
}

And you can define same name in different enums with different values, like enum class in C++11:

message Counter {
  enum Status {
    option scoped = true;
    start = 0;
    stop = 1;
  }
  enum Action {
    option scoped = true;
    stop = 42;
  }
  required int32 stop = 1;
  optional Status status = 2 [default = stop];  // by default status will set to 1
  optional Action action = 3 [default = stop];  // by default action will set to 42
}

Note: This option doesn't require C++11 support, it just scopes the enum value names to the enum instead of the parent of the enum, here is detailed discussion.

Todo List

• move contructor - discussion link
• final class