Hello All,<p>I'm Karthik from GeoG. We wanted to use a serialization format that is close to JSON so that it would work well with JavaScript and various other languages.<p>We wanted it to be compressed, not as GZIP or Snappy, but more like Protobuf or Avro. Except, we did not want a specification/RPC file for larger types beforehand - but give some leeway for user defined types.<p>We have come up with a specification - but we know that our design isn't quite there yet, and we could do a whole lot better.<p>Which is why I'm asking the HackerNews community to help us make this format leaner, meaner and simpler to use.<p>We want to know how to get trashed for trying to reinvent the wheel - we'll take the feedback seriously enough if there is merit in it.<p>Our repo with the specification is here: https://github.com/geog-opensource/sonofa<p>We'd love to hear you!