path: root/contrib/libs/protobuf/CHANGES.txt

2021-06-04 version 3.17.3 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
  C++ 
  * Introduce FieldAccessListener. 
  * Stop emitting boilerplate {Copy/Merge}From in each ProtoBuf class 
  * Fixed some uninitialized variable warnings in generated_message_reflection.cc. 
 
  Kotlin 
  * Fix duplicate proto files error (#8699) 
 
  Java 
  * Fixed parser to check that we are at a proper limit when a sub-message has 
    finished parsing. 
 
2021-05-25 version 3.17.2 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
  Kotlin 
  * Fix duplicate class error (#8653) 
 
  PHP 
  * Fixed SEGV in sub-message getters for well-known types when message is unset 
    (#8670) 
 
2021-05-07 version 3.17.1 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
  PHP 
  * Fixed PHP memory leaks and arginfo errors. (#8614) 
  * Fixed JSON parser to allow multiple values from the same oneof as long as 
    all but one are null. 
 
  Ruby 
  * Fixed memory bug: properly root repeated/map field when assigning. (#8639) 
  * Fixed JSON parser to allow multiple values from the same oneof as long as 
    all but one are null. 
 
 
2021-05-07 version 3.17.0 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
  Protocol Compiler 
  * Fix the generated source information for reserved values in Enums. 
 
  C++ 
  * Fix -Wunused-parameter in map<string, int> fields (fixes #8494) (#8500) 
  * Use byteswap.h when building against musl libc (#8503) 
  * Fix -Wundefined-inline error when using SharedCtor() or SharedDtor() (#8532) 
  * Fix bug where `Descriptor::DebugString()` printed proto3 synthetic oneofs. 
  * Provide stable versions of `SortAndUnique()`. 
  * Make sure to cache proto3 optional message fields when they are cleared. 
  * Expose UnsafeArena methods to Reflection. 
  * Use std::string::empty() rather than std::string::size() > 0. 
 
  Kotlin 
  * Restrict extension setter and getter operators to non-nullable T. 
 
  Java 
  * updating GSON and Guava to more recent versions (#8524) 
  * Reduce the time spent evaluating isExtensionNumber by storing the extension 
    ranges in a TreeMap for faster queries. This is particularly relevant for 
    protos which define a large number of extension ranges, for example when 
    each tag is defined as an extension. 
  * Fix java bytecode estimation logic for optional fields. 
  * Optimize Descriptor.isExtensionNumber. 
 
  Python 
  * Add MethodDescriptor.CopyToProto() (#8327) 
  * Remove unused python_protobuf.{cc,h} (#8513) 
  * Start publishing python aarch64 manylinux wheels normally (#8530) 
  * Fix constness issue detected by MSVC standard conforming mode (#8568) 
  * Make JSON parsing match C++ and Java when multiple fields from the same 
    oneof are present and all but one is null. 
 
  Ruby 
  * Add support for proto3 json_name in compiler and field definitions (#8356) 
  * Fixed memory leak of Ruby arena objects. (#8461) 
  * Fix source gem compilation (#8471) 
  * Fix various exceptions in Ruby on 64-bit Windows (#8563) 
  * Fix crash when calculating Message hash values on 64-bit Windows (#8565) 
 
  Conformance Tests 
  * Added a conformance test for the case of multiple fields from the same 
    oneof. 
 
2021-04-06 version 3.16.0 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
  Other 
  * Opensourcing kotlin protos (#8272) 
  * Use a newer version of rules_proto, with the new rule `proto_descriptor_set` (#8469) 
 
  C++ 
  * Fix compiler warnings issue found in conformance_test_runner #8189 (#8190) 
  * Fix MinGW-w64 build issues. (#8286) 
  * [Protoc] C++ Resolved an issue where NO_DESTROY and CONSTINIT are in incorrect order (#8296) 
  * Fix PROTOBUF_CONSTINIT macro redefinition (#8323) 
  * Delete StringPiecePod (#8353) 
  * Fix gcc error: comparison of unsigned expression in '>= 0' is always … (#8309) 
  * Fix cmake install on iOS (#8301) 
  * Create a CMake option to control whether or not RTTI is enabled (#8347) 
  * Fix endian.h location on FreeBSD (#8351) 
  * Refactor util::Status (#8354) 
  * Make util::Status more similar to absl::Status (#8405) 
  * Fix -Wsuggest-destructor-override for generated C++ proto classes. (#8408) 
  * Refactor StatusOr and StringPiece (#8406) 
  * Refactor uint128 (#8416) 
  * The ::pb namespace is no longer exposed due to conflicts. 
  * Allow MessageDifferencer::TreatAsSet() (and friends) to override previous 
    calls instead of crashing. 
  * Reduce the size of generated proto headers for protos with `string` or 
    `bytes` fields. 
  * Move arena() operation on uncommon path to out-of-line routine 
  * For iterator-pair function parameter types, take both iterators by value. 
  * Code-space savings and perhaps some modest performance improvements in 
    RepeatedPtrField. 
  * Eliminate nullptr check from every tag parse. 
  * Remove unused _$name$_cached_byte_size_ fields. 
  * Serialize extension ranges together when not broken by a proto field in the 
    middle. 
  * Do out-of-line allocation and deallocation of string object in ArenaString. 
  * Streamline ParseContext::ParseMessage<T> to avoid code bloat and improve 
    performance. 
  * New member functions RepeatedField::Assign, RepeatedPtrField::{Add, Assign}. 
  * Fix undefined behavior warning due to innocuous uninitialization of value 
    on an error path. 
  * Avoid expensive inlined code space for encoding message length for messages 
    >= 128 bytes and instead do a procedure call to a shared out-of-line routine. 
  * util::DefaultFieldComparator will be final in a future version of protobuf. 
    Subclasses should inherit from SimpleFieldComparator instead. 
 
  C# 
  * Add .NET 5 target and improve WriteString performance with SIMD (#8147) 
 
  Java 
  * deps: update JUnit and Truth (#8319) 
  * Detect invalid overflow of byteLimit and return InvalidProtocolBufferException as documented. 
  * Exceptions thrown while reading from an InputStream in parseFrom are now 
    included as causes. 
  * Support potentially more efficient proto parsing from RopeByteStrings. 
  * Clarify runtime of ByteString.Output.toStringBuffer(). 
  * Added UnsafeByteOperations to protobuf-lite (#8426) 
 
  JavaScript 
  * Make Any.pack() chainable. 
 
  Python 
  * Fix some constness / char literal issues being found by MSVC standard conforming mode (#8344) 
  * Switch on "new" buffer API (#8339) 
  * Enable crosscompiling aarch64 python wheels under dockcross manylinux docker image (#8280) 
  * Fixed a bug in text format where a trailing colon was printed for repeated field. 
  * When TextFormat encounters a duplicate message map key, replace the current 
    one instead of merging. 
 
  Objective-C 
  * Move the class map to a CFDictionary. (#8328) 
 
  PHP 
  * read_property() handler is not supposed to return NULL (#8362) 
  * Changed parameter type from long to integer (#7613) 
  * fix: README supported PHP version for C extension (#8236) 
 
  Ruby 
  * Fixed quadratic memory usage when appending to arrays. (#8364) 
  * Fixed memory leak of Ruby arena objects. (#8461) 
  * Add support for proto3 json_name in compiler and field definitions. (#8356) 
 
  Other 
  * Some doc on AOT compilation and protobuf (#8294) 
  * [CMake] Ability to pass options to protoc executable from cmake (#8374) 
  * Add --fatal_warnings flag to treat warnings as errors (#8131) 
  * [bazel] Remove deprecated way to depend on googletest (#8396) 
  * add error returns missing from protoc to prevent it from exiting with… (#8409) 
 
 
2021-04-07 version 3.15.8 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
  Ruby 
  * Fixed memory leak of Ruby arena objects (#8461) 
 
2021-04-02 version 3.15.7 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
  C++ 
  * Remove the ::pb namespace (alias) (#8423) 
 
  Ruby 
  * Fix unbounded memory growth for Ruby <2.7 (#8429) 
  * Fixed message equality in cases where the message type is different (#8434) 
 
2021-03-10 version 3.15.6 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
  Ruby 
  * Fixed bug in string comparison logic (#8386) 
 
2021-03-04 version 3.15.5 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
  Ruby 
  * Fixed quadratic memory use in array append (#8379) 
 
  PHP 
  * Fixed quadratic memory use in array append (#8379) 
 
  C++ 
  * Do not disable RTTI by default in the CMake build (#8377) 
 
2021-03-02 version 3.15.4 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
  Ruby 
  * Fixed SEGV when users pass nil messages (#8363) 
  * Fixed quadratic memory usage when appending to arrays (#8364) 
 
  C++ 
  * Create a CMake option to control whether or not RTTI is enabled (#8361) 
 
  PHP 
  * read_property() handler is not supposed to return NULL (#8362) 
 
2021-02-25 version 3.15.3 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
  Ruby 
  * Ruby <2.7 now uses WeakMap too, which prevents memory leaks. (#8341) 
 
2021-02-23 version 3.15.2 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
  Ruby 
  * Fix for FieldDescriptor.get(msg) (#8330) 
 
  C++ 
  * Fix PROTOBUF_CONSTINIT macro redefinition (#8323) 
 
2021-02-05 version 3.15.1 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
  Ruby 
  * Bugfix for Message.[] for repeated or map fields (#8313) 
 
2021-02-05 version 3.15.0 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
  Protocol Compiler 
  * Optional fields for proto3 are enabled by default, and no longer require 
    the --experimental_allow_proto3_optional flag. 
 
  C++ 
  * MessageDifferencer: fixed bug when using custom ignore with multiple 
    unknown fields 
  * Use init_seg in MSVC to push initialization to an earlier phase. 
  * Runtime no longer triggers -Wsign-compare warnings. 
  * Fixed -Wtautological-constant-out-of-range-compare warning. 
  * DynamicCastToGenerated works for nullptr input for even if RTTI is disabled 
  * Arena is refactored and optimized. 
  * Clarified/specified that the exact value of Arena::SpaceAllocated() is an 
    implementation detail users must not rely on. It should not be used in 
    unit tests. 
  * Change the signature of Any::PackFrom() to return false on error. 
  * Add fast reflection getter API for strings. 
  * Constant initialize the global message instances 
  * Avoid potential for missed wakeup in UnknownFieldSet 
  * Now Proto3 Oneof fields have "has" methods for checking their presence in 
    C++. 
  * Bugfix for NVCC 
  * Return early in _InternalSerialize for empty maps. 
  * Adding functionality for outputting map key values in proto path logging 
    output (does not affect comparison logic) and stop printing 'value' in the 
    path. The modified print functionality is in the 
    MessageDifferencer::StreamReporter. 
  * Fixed https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/issues/8129 
  * Ensure that null char symbol, package and file names do not result in a 
    crash. 
  * Constant initialize the global message instances 
  * Pretty print 'max' instead of numeric values in reserved ranges. 
  * Removed remaining instances of std::is_pod, which is deprecated in C++20. 
  * Changes to reduce code size for unknown field handling by making uncommon 
    cases out of line. 
  * Fix std::is_pod deprecated in C++20 (#7180) 
  * Fix some -Wunused-parameter warnings (#8053) 
  * Fix detecting file as directory on zOS issue #8051 (#8052) 
  * Don't include sys/param.h for _BYTE_ORDER (#8106) 
  * remove CMAKE_THREAD_LIBS_INIT from pkgconfig CFLAGS (#8154) 
  * Fix TextFormatMapTest.DynamicMessage issue#5136 (#8159) 
  * Fix for compiler warning issue#8145 (#8160) 
  * fix: support deprecated enums for GCC < 6 (#8164) 
  * Fix some warning when compiling with Visual Studio 2019 on x64 target (#8125) 
 
  Python 
  * Provided an override for the reverse() method that will reverse the internal 
    collection directly instead of using the other methods of the BaseContainer. 
  * MessageFactory.CreateProtoype can be overridden to customize class creation. 
  * Fix PyUnknownFields memory leak (#7928) 
  * Add macOS big sur compatibility (#8126) 
 
  JavaScript 
  * Generate `getDescriptor` methods with `*` as their `this` type. 
  * Enforce `let/const` for generated messages. 
  * js/binary/utils.js: Fix jspb.utils.joinUnsignedDecimalString to work with negative bitsLow and low but non-zero bitsHigh parameter. (#8170) 
 
  PHP 
  * Added support for PHP 8. (#8105) 
  * unregister INI entries and fix invalid read on shutdown (#8042) 
  * Fix PhpDoc comments for message accessors to include "|null". (#8136) 
  * fix: convert native PHP floats to single precision (#8187) 
  * Fixed PHP to support field numbers >=2**28. (#8235) 
  * feat: add support for deprecated fields to PHP compiler (#8223) 
  * Protect against stack overflow if the user derives from Message. (#8248) 
  * Fixed clone for Message, RepeatedField, and MapField. (#8245) 
  * Updated upb to allow nonzero offset minutes in JSON timestamps. (#8258) 
 
  Ruby 
  * Added support for Ruby 3. (#8184) 
  * Rewrote the data storage layer to be based on upb_msg objects from the 
    upb library. This should lead to much better parsing performance, 
    particularly for large messages. (#8184). 
  * Fill out JRuby support (#7923) 
  * [Ruby] Fix: (SIGSEGV) gRPC-Ruby issue on Windows. memory alloc infinite 
    recursion/run out of memory (#8195) 
  * Fix jruby support to handle messages nested more than 1 level deep (#8194) 
 
  Java 
  * Avoid possible UnsupportedOperationException when using CodedInputSteam 
    with a direct ByteBuffer. 
  * Make Durations.comparator() and Timestamps.comparator() Serializable. 
  * Add more detailed error information for dynamic message field type 
    validation failure 
  * Removed declarations of functions declared in java_names.h from 
    java_helpers.h. 
  * Now Proto3 Oneof fields have "has" methods for checking their presence in 
    Java. 
  * Annotates Java proto generated *_FIELD_NUMBER constants. 
  * Add -assumevalues to remove JvmMemoryAccessor on Android. 
 
  C# 
  * Fix parsing negative Int32Value that crosses segment boundary (#8035) 
  * Change ByteString to use memory and support unsafe create without copy (#7645) 
  * Optimize MapField serialization by removing MessageAdapter (#8143) 
  * Allow FileDescriptors to be parsed with extension registries (#8220) 
  * Optimize writing small strings (#8149) 
 
2020-11-11 version 3.14.0 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
  Protocol Compiler 
  * The proto compiler no longer requires a .proto filename when it is not 
    generating code. 
  * Added flag `--deterministic_output` to `protoc --encode=...`. 
  * Fixed deadlock when using google.protobuf.Any embedded in aggregate options. 
 
  C++ 
  * Arenas are now unconditionally enabled. cc_enable_arenas no longer has 
    any effect. 
  * Removed inlined string support, which is incompatible with arenas. 
  * Fix a memory corruption bug in reflection when mixing optional and 
    non-optional fields. 
  * Make SpaceUsed() calculation more thorough for map fields. 
  * Add stack overflow protection for text format with unknown field values. 
  * FieldPath::FollowAll() now returns a bool to signal if an out-of-bounds 
    error was encountered. 
  * Performance improvements for Map. 
  * Minor formatting fix when dumping a descriptor to .proto format with 
    DebugString. 
  * UBSAN fix in RepeatedField (#2073). 
  * When running under ASAN, skip a test that makes huge allocations. 
  * Fixed a crash that could happen when creating more than 256 extensions in 
    a single message. 
  * Fix a crash in BuildFile when passing in invalid descriptor proto. 
  * Parser security fix when operating with CodedInputStream. 
  * Warn against the use of AllowUnknownExtension. 
  * Migrated to C++11 for-range loops instead of index-based loops where 
    possible. This fixes a lot of warnings when compiling with -Wsign-compare. 
  * Fix segment fault for proto3 optional (#7805) 
  * Adds a CMake option to build `libprotoc` separately (#7949) 
 
  Java 
  * Bugfix in mergeFrom() when a oneof has multiple message fields. 
  * Fix RopeByteString.RopeInputStream.read() returning -1 when told to read 
    0 bytes when not at EOF. 
  * Redefine remove(Object) on primitive repeated field Lists to avoid 
    autoboxing. 
  * Support "\u" escapes in textformat string literals. 
  * Trailing empty spaces are no longer ignored for FieldMask. 
  * Fix FieldMaskUtil.subtract to recursively remove mask. 
  * Mark enums with `@java.lang.Deprecated` if the proto enum has option 
    `deprecated = true;`. 
  * Adding forgotten duration.proto to the lite library (#7738) 
 
  Python 
  * Print google.protobuf.NullValue as null instead of "NULL_VALUE" when it is 
    used outside WKT Value/Struct. 
  * Fix bug occurring when attempting to deep copy an enum type in python 3. 
  * Add a setuptools extension for generating Python protobufs (#7783) 
  * Remove uses of pkg_resources in non-namespace packages. (#7902) 
  * [bazel/py] Omit google/__init__.py from the Protobuf runtime. (#7908) 
  * Removed the unnecessary setuptools package dependency for Python package (#7511) 
  * Fix PyUnknownFields memory leak (#7928) 
 
  PHP 
  * Added support for "==" to the PHP C extension (#7883) 
  * Added `==` operators for Map and Array. (#7900) 
  * Native C well-known types (#7944) 
  * Optimized away hex2bin() call in generated code (#8006) 
  * New version of upb, and a new hash function wyhash in third_party. (#8000) 
  * add missing hasOneof method to check presence of oneof fields (#8003) 
 
  Go: 
  * Update go_package options to reference google.golang.org/protobuf module. 
 
  C#: 
  * annotate ByteString.CopyFrom(ReadOnlySpan<byte>) as SecuritySafeCritical (#7701) 
  * Fix C# optional field reflection when there are regular fields too (#7705) 
  * Fix parsing negative Int32Value that crosses segment boundary (#8035) 
 
  Javascript: 
  * JS: parse (un)packed fields conditionally (#7379) 
 
2020-07-14 version 3.13.0 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
  PHP: 
  * The C extension is completely rewritten. The new C extension has significantly 
    better parsing performance and fixes a handful of conformance issues. It will 
    also make it easier to add support for more features like proto2 and proto3 presence. 
  * The new C extension does not support PHP 5.x. PHP 5.x users can still use pure-PHP. 
 
  C++: 
  * Removed deprecated unsafe arena string accessors 
  * Enabled heterogeneous lookup for std::string keys in maps. 
  * Removed implicit conversion from StringPiece to std::string 
  * Fix use-after-destroy bug when the Map is allocated in the arena. 
  * Improved the randomness of map ordering 
  * Added stack overflow protection for text format with unknown fields 
  * Use std::hash for proto maps to help with portability. 
  * Added more Windows macros to proto whitelist. 
  * Arena constructors for map entry messages are now marked "explicit" 
    (for regular messages they were already explicit). 
  * Fix subtle aliasing bug in RepeatedField::Add 
  * Fix mismatch between MapEntry ByteSize and Serialize with respect to unset 
    fields. 
 
  Python: 
  * JSON format conformance fixes: 
    * Reject lowercase t for Timestamp json format. 
    * Print full_name directly for extensions (no camelCase). 
    * Reject boolean values for integer fields. 
    * Reject NaN, Infinity, -Infinity that is not quoted. 
    * Base64 fixes for bytes fields: accept URL-safe base64 and missing padding. 
  * Bugfix for fields/files named "async" or "await". 
  * Improved the error message when AttributeError is returned from __getattr__ 
    in EnumTypeWrapper. 
 
  Java: 
  * Fixed a bug where setting optional proto3 enums with setFooValue() would 
    not mark the value as present. 
  * Add Subtract function to FieldMaskUtil. 
 
  C#: 
  * Dropped support for netstandard1.0 (replaced by support for netstandard1.1). 
    This was required to modernize the parsing stack to use the `Span<byte>` 
    type internally. (#7351) 
  * Add `ParseFrom(ReadOnlySequence<byte>)` method to enable GC friendly 
    parsing with reduced allocations and buffer copies. (#7351) 
  * Add support for serialization directly to a `IBufferWriter<byte>` or 
    to a `Span<byte>` to enable GC friendly serialization. 
    The new API is available as extension methods on the `IMessage` type. (#7576) 
  * Add `GOOGLE_PROTOBUF_REFSTRUCT_COMPATIBILITY_MODE` define to make 
    generated code compatible with old C# compilers (pre-roslyn compilers 
    from .NET framework and old versions of mono) that do not support 
    ref structs. Users that are still on a legacy stack that does 
    not support C# 7.2 compiler might need to use the new define 
    in their projects to be able to build the newly generated code. (#7490) 
  * Due to the major overhaul of parsing and serialization internals (#7351 and #7576), 
    it is recommended to regenerate your generated code to achieve the best 
    performance (the legacy generated code will still work, but might incur 
    a slight performance penalty). 
 
2020-07-28 version 3.12.4 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
This release contains no significant changes, but exists because 3.12.3 was 
mistakenly tagged at the wrong commit. 
 
2020-06-01 version 3.12.3 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
  Objective-C 
  * Tweak the union used for Extensions to support old generated code. #7573 
 
2020-05-26 version 3.12.2 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
  C++ 
  * Simplified the template export macros to fix the build for mingw32. (#7539) 
 
  Objective-C 
  * Fix for the :protobuf_objc target in the Bazel BUILD file. (#7538) 
 
2020-05-20 version 3.12.1 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
  Ruby 
  * Re-add binary gems for Ruby 2.3 and 2.4. These are EOL upstream, however 
    many people still use them and dropping support will require more 
    coordination. 
 
2020-05-12 version 3.12.0 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
  Protocol Compiler 
  * [experimental] Singular, non-message typed fields in proto3 now support 
    presence tracking. This is enabled by adding the "optional" field label and 
    passing the --experimental_allow_proto3_optional flag to protoc. 
    * For usage info, see docs/field_presence.md. 
    * During this experimental phase, code generators should update to support 
      proto3 presence, see docs/implementing_proto3_presence.md for instructions. 
  * Allow duplicate symbol names when multiple descriptor sets are passed on 
    the command-line, to match the behavior when multiple .proto files are passed. 
  * Deterministic `protoc --descriptor_set_out` (#7175) 
 
  C++ 
  * [experimental] Added proto3 presence support. 
  * New descriptor APIs to support proto3 presence. 
  * Enable Arenas by default on all .proto files. 
  * Documented that users are not allowed to subclass Message or MessageLite. 
  * Mark generated classes as final; inheriting from protos is strongly discouraged. 
  * Add stack overflow protection for text format with unknown fields. 
  * Add accessors for map key and value FieldDescriptors. 
  * Add FieldMaskUtil::FromFieldNumbers(). 
  * MessageDifferencer: use ParsePartial() on Any fields so the diff does not 
    fail when there are missing required fields. 
  * ReflectionOps::Merge(): lookup messages in the right factory, if it can. 
  * Added Descriptor::WellKnownTypes enum and Descriptor::well_known_type() 
    accessor as an easier way of determining if a message is a Well-Known Type. 
  * Optimized RepeatedField::Add() when it is used in a loop. 
  * Made proto move/swap more efficient. 
  * De-virtualize the GetArena() method in MessageLite. 
  * Improves performance of json_stream_parser.cc by factor 1000 (#7230) 
  * bug: #7076 undefine Windows OUT and OPTIONAL macros (#7087) 
  * Fixed a bug in FieldDescriptor::DebugString() that would erroneously print 
    an "optional" label for a field in a oneof. 
  * Fix bug in parsing bool extensions that assumed they are always 1 byte. 
  * Fix off-by-one error in FieldOptions::ByteSize() when extensions are present. 
  * Clarified the comments to show an example of the difference between 
    Descriptor::extension and DescriptorPool::FindAllExtensions. 
  * Add a compiler option 'code_size' to force optimize_for=code_size on all 
    protos where this is possible. 
 
  Java 
  * [experimental] Added proto3 presence support. 
  * Mark java enum _VALUE constants as @Deprecated if the enum field is deprecated 
  * reduce <clinit> size for enums with allow_alias set to true. 
  * Sort map fields alphabetically by the field's key when printing textproto. 
  * Fixed a bug in map sorting that appeared in -rc1 and -rc2 (#7508). 
  * TextFormat.merge() handles Any as top level type. 
  * Throw a descriptive IllegalArgumentException when calling 
    getValueDescriptor() on enum special value UNRECOGNIZED instead of 
    ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException. 
  * Fixed an issue with JsonFormat.printer() where setting printingEnumsAsInts() 
    would override the configuration passed into includingDefaultValueFields(). 
  * Implement overrides of indexOf() and contains() on primitive lists returned 
    for repeated fields to avoid autoboxing the list contents. 
  * Add overload to FieldMaskUtil.fromStringList that accepts a descriptor. 
  * [bazel] Move Java runtime/toolchains into //java (#7190) 
 
  Python 
  * [experimental] Added proto3 presence support. 
  * [experimental] fast import protobuf module, only works with cpp generated code linked in. 
  * Truncate 'float' fields to 4 bytes of precision in setters for pure-Python 
    implementation (C++ extension was already doing this). 
  * Fixed a memory leak in C++ bindings. 
  * Added a deprecation warning when code tries to create Descriptor objects 
    directly. 
  * Fix unintended comparison between bytes and string in descriptor.py. 
  * Avoid printing excess digits for float fields in TextFormat. 
  * Remove Python 2.5 syntax compatibility from the proto compiler generated _pb2.py module code. 
  * Drop 3.3, 3.4 and use single version docker images for all python tests (#7396) 
 
  JavaScript 
  * Fix js message pivot selection (#6813) 
 
  PHP 
  * Persistent Descriptor Pool (#6899) 
  * Implement lazy loading of php class for proto messages (#6911) 
  * Correct @return in Any.unpack docblock (#7089) 
  * Ignore unknown enum value when ignore_unknown specified (#7455) 
 
  Ruby 
  * [experimental] Implemented proto3 presence for Ruby. (#7406) 
  * Stop building binary gems for ruby <2.5 (#7453) 
  * Fix for wrappers with a zero value (#7195) 
  * Fix for JSON serialization of 0/empty-valued wrapper types (#7198) 
  * Call "Class#new" over rb_class_new_instance in decoding (#7352) 
  * Build extensions for Ruby 2.7 (#7027) 
  * assigning 'nil' to submessage should clear the field. (#7397) 
 
  C# 
  * [experimental] Add support for proto3 presence fields in C# (#7382) 
  * Mark GetOption API as obsolete and expose the "GetOptions()" method on descriptors instead (#7491) 
  * Remove Has/Clear members for C# message fields in proto2 (#7429) 
  * Enforce recursion depth checking for unknown fields (#7132) 
  * Fix conformance test failures for Google.Protobuf (#6910) 
  * Cleanup various bits of Google.Protobuf (#6674) 
  * Fix latest ArgumentException for C# extensions (#6938) 
  * Remove unnecessary branch from ReadTag (#7289) 
 
  Objective-C 
  * [experimental] ObjC Proto3 optional support (#7421) 
  * Block subclassing of generated classes (#7124) 
  * Use references to Obj C classes instead of names in descriptors. (#7026) 
  * Revisit how the WKTs are bundled with ObjC. (#7173) 
 
  Other 
  * Add a proto_lang_toolchain for javalite (#6882) 
  * [bazel] Update gtest and deprecate //external:{gtest,gtest_main} (#7237) 
  * Add application note for explicit presence tracking. (#7390) 
  * Howto doc for implementing proto3 presence in a code generator. (#7407) 
 
 
2020-02-14 version 3.11.4 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
   
  C# 
  * Fix latest ArgumentException for C# extensions (#7188) 
  * Enforce recursion depth checking for unknown fields (#7210) 
   
  Ruby 
  * Fix wrappers with a zero value (#7195) 
  * Fix JSON serialization of 0/empty-valued wrapper types (#7198) 
 
2020-01-31 version 3.11.3 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
  C++ 
  * Add OUT and OPTIONAL to windows portability files (#7087) 
 
  PHP 
  * Refactored ulong to zend_ulong for php7.4 compatibility (#7147) 
  * Call register_class before getClass from desc to fix segfault (#7077) 
   
 
2019-12-10 version 3.11.2 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
  PHP 
  * Make c extension portable for php 7.4 (#6968) 
   
 
2019-12-02 version 3.11.1 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
  PHP 
  * Extern declare protobuf_globals (#6946) 
 
 
2019-11-19 version 3.11.0 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
  C++ 
  * Make serialization method naming consistent 
  * Make proto runtime + generated code free of deprecation warnings 
  * Moved ShutdownProtobufLibrary() to message_lite.h.  For backward compatibility a declaration is still available in stubs/common.h, but users should prefer message_lite.h 
  * Removed non-namespace macro EXPECT_OK() 
  * Removed mathlimits.h from stubs in favor of using std::numeric_limits from C++11 
  * Fixed bug in parser when ending on a group tag 
  * Add a helper function to UnknownFieldSet to deal with the changing return value of message::unknown_fields() 
  * Fix incorrect use of string_view iterators 
  * Support direct pickling of nested messages 
  * Skip extension tag validation for MessageSet if unknown dependencies are allowed 
  * Updated deprecation macros to annotate deprecated code (#6612) 
  * Remove conversion warning in MapEntryFuncs::ByteSizeLong (#6766) 
  * Revert "Make shared libraries be able to link to MSVC static runtime libraries, so that VC runtime is not required." (#6914) 
 
  Java 
  * Remove the usage of MethodHandle, so that Android users prior to API version 26 can use protobuf-java 
  * Publish ProGuard config for javalite 
  * Fix for StrictMode disk read violation in ExtensionRegistryLite 
  * Include part of the ByteString's content in its toString(). 
  * Include unknown fields when merging proto3 messages in Java lite builders 
 
  Python 
  * Add float_precision option in json format printer 
  * Optionally print bytes fields as messages in unknown fields, if possible 
  * FieldPath: fix testing IsSet on root path '' 
  * Experimental code gen (fast import protobuf module) which only work with cpp generated code linked in 
 
  JavaScript 
  * Remove guard for Symbol iterator for jspb.Map 
 
  PHP 
  * Avoid too much overhead in layout_init (#6716) 
  * Lazily Create Singular Wrapper Message (#6833) 
  * Implement lazy loading of php class for proto messages (#6911) 
 
  Ruby 
  * Ruby lazy wrappers optimization (#6797) 
 
  C# 
  * (RepeatedField): Capacity property to resize the internal array (#6530) 
  * Experimental proto2 support is now officially available (#4642, #5183, #5350, #5936) 
  * Getting started doc: https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/blob/master/docs/csharp/proto2.md 
  * Add length checks to ExtensionCollection (#6759) 
  * Optimize parsing of some primitive and wrapper types (#6843) 
  * Use 3 parameter Encoding.GetString for default string values (#6828) 
  * Change _Extensions property to normal body rather than expression (#6856) 
 
  Objective C 
  * Fixed unaligned reads for 32bit arm with newer Xcode versions (#6678) 
 
 
2019-09-03 version 3.10.0 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
  C++ 
  * Switch the proto parser to the faster MOMI parser. 
  * Properly escape Struct keys in the proto3 JSON serializer. 
  * Fix crash on uninitialized map entries. 
  * Informed the compiler of has-bit invariant to produce better code 
  * Unused imports of files defining descriptor extensions will now be reported 
  * Add proto2::util::RemoveSubranges to remove multiple subranges in linear time. 
  * Added BaseTextGenerator::GetCurrentIndentationSize() 
  * Made implicit weak fields compatible with the Apple linker 
  * Support 32 bit values for ProtoStreamObjectWriter to Struct. 
  * Removed the internal-only header coded_stream_inl.h and the internal-only methods defined there. 
  * Enforced no SWIG wrapping of descriptor_database.h (other headers already had this restriction). 
  * Implementation of the equivalent of the MOMI parser for serialization. This removes one of the two serialization routines, by making the fast array serialization routine completely general. SerializeToCodedStream can now be implemented in terms of the much much faster array serialization. The array serialization regresses slightly, but when array serialization is not possible this wins big.  
  * Do not convert unknown field name to snake case to accurately report error. 
  * Fix a UBSAN warnings. (#6333) 
  * Add podspec for C++ (#6404) 
  * protoc: fix source code info location for missing label (#6436) 
  * C++ Add move constructor for Reflection's SetString (#6477) 
 
  Java 
  * Call loadDescriptor outside of synchronized block to remove one possible source of deadlock. 
  * Have oneof enums implement a separate interface (other than EnumLite) for clarity. 
  * Opensource Android Memory Accessors 
  * Update TextFormat to make use of the new TypeRegistry. 
  * Support getFieldBuilder and getRepeatedFieldBuilder in ExtendableBuilder 
  * Update JsonFormat to make use of the new TypeRegistry. 
  * Add proguard config generator for GmmBenchmarkSuiteLite. 
  * Change ProtobufArrayList to use Object[] instead of ArrayList for 5-10% faster parsing 
  * Implement ProtobufArrayList.add(E) for 20% (5%-40%) faster overall protolite2 parsing 
  * Make a copy of JsonFormat.TypeRegistry at the protobuf top level package. This will eventually replace JsonFormat.TypeRegistry. 
  * Fix javadoc warnings in generated files (#6231) 
  * Java: Add Automatic-Module-Name entries to the Manifest (#6568) 
 
  Python 
  * Add descriptor methods in descriptor_pool are deprecated. 
  * Uses explicit imports to prevent multithread test failures in py3. 
  * Added __delitem__ for Python extension dict 
  * Update six version to 1.12.0 and fix legacy_create_init issue (#6391) 
 
  JavaScript 
  * Remove deprecated boolean option to getResultBase64String(). 
  * Fix sint64 zig-zag encoding. 
  * Simplify hash64 string conversion to avoid DIGIT array. Should reduce overhead if these functions aren't used, and be more efficient by avoiding linear array searches. 
  * Change the parameter types of binaryReaderFn in ExtensionFieldBinaryInfo to (number, ?, ?). 
  * Create dates.ts and time_of_days.ts to mirror Java versions. This is a near-identical conversion of c.g.type.util.{Dates,TimeOfDays} respectively. 
  * Migrate moneys to TypeScript. 
   
  PHP 
  * Fix incorrect leap day for Timestamp (#6696) 
  * Initialize well known type values (#6713) 
 
  Ruby 
  * Fix scope resolution for Google namespace (#5878) 
  * Support hashes for struct initializers (#5716) 
  * Optimized away the creation of empty string objects. (#6502) 
  * Roll forward Ruby upb changes now that protobuf Ruby build is fixed (#5866) 
  * Optimized layout_mark() for Ruby (#6521) 
  * Optimization for layout_init() (#6547) 
  * Fix for GC of Ruby map frames. (#6533) 
  * Fixed leap year handling by reworking upb_mktime() -> upb_timegm(). (#6695) 
   
  Objective C 
  * Remove OSReadLittle* due to alignment requirements (#6678) 
  * Don't use unions and instead use memcpy for the type swaps. (#6672) 
 
  Other 
  * Override CocoaPods module to lowercase (#6464) 
 
 
2019-06-28 version 3.9.0 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
  C++ 
  * Optimize and simplify implementation of RepeatedPtrFieldBase 
  * Don't create unnecessary unknown field sets. 
  * Remove branch from accessors to repeated field element array. 
  * Added delimited parse and serialize util. 
  * Reduce size by not emitting constants for fieldnumbers 
  * Fix a bug when comparing finite and infinite field values with explicit tolerances. 
  * TextFormat::Parser should use a custom Finder to look up extensions by number if one is provided. 
  * Add MessageLite::Utf8DebugString() to make MessageLite more compatible with Message. 
  * Fail fast for better performance in DescriptorPool::FindExtensionByNumber() if descriptor has no defined extensions. 
  * Adding the file name to help debug colliding extensions 
  * Added FieldDescriptor::PrintableNameForExtension() and DescriptorPool::FindExtensionByPrintableName(). 
    The latter will replace Reflection::FindKnownExtensionByName(). 
  * Replace NULL with nullptr 
  * Created a new Add method in repeated field that allows adding a range of elements all at once. 
  * Enabled enum name-to-value mapping functions for C++ lite 
  * Avoid dynamic initialization in descriptor.proto generated code 
  * Move stream functions to MessageLite from Message. 
  * Move all zero_copy_stream functionality to io_lite. 
  * Do not create array of matched fields for simple repeated fields 
  * Enabling silent mode by default to reduce make compilation noise. (#6237) 
 
  Java 
  * Expose TextFormat.Printer and make it configurable. Deprecate the static methods. 
  * Library for constructing google.protobuf.Struct and google.protobuf.Value 
  * Make OneofDescriptor extend GenericDescriptor. 
  * Expose streamingness of service methods from MethodDescriptor. 
  * Fix a bug where TextFormat fails to parse Any filed with > 1 embedded message sub-fields. 
  * Establish consistent JsonFormat behavior for nulls in oneofs, regardless of order. 
  * Update GSON version to 3.8.5. (#6268) 
  * Add `protobuf_java_lite` Bazel target. (#6177) 
 
  Python 
  * Change implementation of Name() for enums that allow aliases in proto2 in Python 
    to be in line with claims in C++ implementation (to return first value). 
  * Explicitly say what field cannot be set when the new value fails a type check. 
  * Duplicate register in descriptor pool will raise errors 
  * Add __slots__ to all well_known_types classes, custom attributes are not allowed anymore. 
  * text_format only present 8 valid digits for float fields by default 
 
  JavaScript 
  * Add Oneof enum to the list of goog.provide 
 
  PHP 
  * Make php message class final to avoid mocking. (#6277) 
  * Rename get/setXXXValue to get/setXXXWrapper. (#6295) 
 
  Ruby 
  * Remove to_hash methods. (#6166) 
 
 
2019-04-29 version 3.8.0 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
  C++ 
  * Use std::atomic<int32> in case of myriad2 platform 
  * Always declare enums to be int-sized 
  * Added DebugString() and ShortDebugString() methods on MessageLite 
  * Specialized different parse loop control flows 
  * Make hasbits potentially in register. The or's start forming an obstacle because it's a read modify store on the same mem address on each iteration. 
  * Move to an internal MACRO for parser validity checks. 
  * Improve map parsing performance. 
  * Make MergePartialFromCodedStream non virtual. This allows direct calls, potential inlining and is also a code health improvement 
  * Add an overall limit to parse_context to prevent reading past it. This allows to remove a annoying level of indirection. 
  * Fix a mistake, we shouldn't verify map key/value strings for utf8 in opt mode for proto2. 
  * Further improvements to cut binary size. 
  * Prepare to make MergePartialFromCodedStream non-virtual. 
  * A report on some interesting behavior change in python (caused by b/27494216) made me realize there is a check that needs to be done in case the parse ended on a end group tag. 
  * Add a note of caution to the comments around skip in CodedOutputStream. 
  * Simplify end check. 
  * Add overload for ParseMessage for MessageLite/Message types. If the explicit type is not known inlining won't help de-virtualizing the virtual call. 
  * Reduce linker input. It turns out that ParseMessage is not inlined, producing  template instantiations that are used only once and save nothing but cost more. 
  * Improve the parser. 
  * [c++17] Changed proto2::RepeatedPtrField iterators to no longer derive from the deprecated std::iterator class. 
  * Change the default value of case_insensitive_enum_parsing to false for JsonStringToMessage. 
  * Add a warning if a field name doesn't match the style guide. 
  * Fix TextFormat not round-trip correctly when float value is max float. 
  * Added locationed info for some errors at compiler 
  * Python reserved keywords are now working with getattr()/setattr() for most descriptors. 
  * Added AllowUnknownField() in text_format 
  * Append '_' to C++ reserved keywords for message, enum, extension 
  * Fix MSVC warning C4244 in protobuf's parse_context.h. 
  * Updating Iterators to be compatible with C++17 in MSVC. 
  * Use capability annotation in mutex.h 
  * Fix "UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer: cfi-bad-type" 
  * CriticalSectionLock class as a lightweight replacement for std::mutex on Windows platforms. 
  * Removed vestigial wire_format_lite_inl.h 
 
  C# 
  * Added System.Memory dependency. 
 
  Java 
  * Make Java protoc code generator ignore optimize_for LITE_RUNTIME. Users should instead use the Java lite protoc plugin. 
  * Change Extension getMessageDefaultInstance() to return Message instead of MessageLite. 
  * Prevent malicious input streams from leaking buffers for ByteString or ByteBuffer parsing. 
  * Release new Javalite runtime. 
  * Show warning in case potential file name conflict. 
  * Allow Java reserved keywords to be used in extensions. 
  * Added setAllowUnknownFields() in text format 
  * Add memoization to ExtensionRegistryLite.getEmptyRegistry() 
  * Improve performance of CodedOutputStream.writeUInt32NoTag 
  * Add an optimized mismatch-finding algorithm to UnsafeUtil. 
  * When serializing uint32 varints, check that we have MAX_VARINT32_SIZE bytes left, not just MAX_VARINT_SIZE. 
  * Minor optimization to RopeByteString.PieceIterator 
 
  JavaScript 
  * Simplify generated toObject code when the default value is used. 
 
  Python 
  * Changes implementation of Name() for enums that allow aliases in proto2 in Python to be in line with claims in C++ implementation (to return first value). 
  * Added double_format option in text format printer. 
  * Added iter and __contains__ to extension dict 
  * Added allow_unknown_field option in python text format parser 
  * Fixed Timestamp.ToDatetime() loses precision issue 
  * Support unknown field in text format printer. 
  * Float field will be convert to inf if bigger than struct.unpack('f', b'\xff\xff\x7f\x7f')[0] which is about 3.4028234664e+38, 
  convert to -inf if smaller than -3.4028234664e+38 
  * Allowed casting str->bytes in Message.__setstate__ 
 
  Ruby 
  * Helper methods to get enum name for Ruby. 
 
 
2019-01-24 version 3.7.0 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
  C++ 
  * Introduced new MOMI (maybe-outside-memory-interval) parser. 
  * Add an option to json_util to parse enum as case-insensitive. In the future, enum parsing in json_util will become case-sensitive. 
  * Added conformance test for enum aliases 
  * Added support for --cpp_out=speed:... 
  * Added use of C++ override keyword where appropriate 
  * Many other cleanups and fixes. 
 
  Java 
  * Fix illegal reflective access warning in JDK 9+ 
  * Add BOM 
 
  Python 
  * Added Python 3.7 compatibility. 
  * Modified ParseFromString to return bytes parsed . 
  * Introduce Proto C API. 
  * FindFileContainingSymbol in descriptor pool is now able to find field and enum values. 
  * reflection.MakeClass()  and  reflection.ParseMessage() are deprecated. 
  * Added DescriptorPool.FindMethodByName() method in pure python (c extension already has it) 
  * Flipped proto3 to preserve unknown fields by default. 
  * Added support for memoryview in python3 proto message parsing. 
  * Added MergeFrom for repeated scalar fields in c extension (pure python already has it) 
  * Surrogates are now rejected at setters in python3. 
  * Added public unknown field API. 
  * RecursionLimit is also set to max if allow_oversize_protos is enabled. 
  * Disallow duplicate scalars in proto3 text_format parse. 
  * Fix some segment faults for c extension map field. 
 
  PHP 
  * Most issues for json encoding/decoding in the c extension have been fixed. There are still some edge cases not fixed. For more details, check conformance/failure_list_php_c.txt. 
  * Supports php 7.3 
  * Added helper methods to convert between enum values and names. 
  * Allow setting/getting wrapper message fields using primitive values. 
  * Various bug fixes. 
 
  Ruby 
  * Ruby 2.6 support. 
  * Drops support for ruby < 2.3. 
  * Most issues for json encoding/decoding in the c extension have been fixed. There are still some edge cases not fixed. For more details, check conformance/failure_list_ruby.txt. 
  * Json parsing can specify an option to ignore unknown fields: msg.decode_json(data, {ignore_unknown_fields: true}). 
  * Added support for proto2 syntax (partially). 
  * Various bug fixes. 
 
  Csharp 
  * More support for FieldMask include merge, intersect and more. 
  * Increasing the default recursion limit to 100. 
  * Support loading FileDescriptors dynamically. 
  * Provide access to comments from descriptors. 
  * Added Any.Is method. 
  * Compatible with C# 6 
  * Added IComparable and comparison operators on Timestamp. 
 
  Objective C 
  * Add ability to introspect list of enum values (#4678) 
  * Copy the value when setting message/data fields (#5215) 
  * Support suppressing the objc package prefix checks on a list of files (#5309) 
  * More complete keyword and NSObject method (via categories) checks for field names, can result in more fields being rename, but avoids the collisions at runtime (#5289) 
  * Small fixes to TextFormat generation for extensions (#5362) 
  * Provide more details/context in deprecation messages (#5412) 
  * Array/Dictionary enumeration blocks NS_NOESCAPE annotation for Swift (#5421) 
  * Properly annotate extensions for ARC when their names imply behaviors (#5427) 
  * Enum alias name collision improvements (#5480) 
 
 
2018-07-27 version 3.6.1 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
  C++ 
  * Introduced workaround for Windows issue with std::atomic and std::once_flag 
    initialization (#4777, #4773). 
 
  PHP 
  * Added compatibility with PHP 7.3 (#4898). 
 
  Ruby 
  * Fixed Ruby crash involving Any encoding (#4718). 
 
2018-06-01 version 3.6.0 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
 
  C++ 
  * Starting from this release, we now require C++11. For those we cannot yet 
    upgrade to C++11, we will try to keep the 3.5.x branch updated with 
    critical bug fixes only. If you have any concerns about this, please 
    comment on issue #2780. 
  * Moved to C++11 types like std::atomic and std::unique_ptr and away from our 
    old custom-built equivalents. 
  * Added support for repeated message fields in lite protos using implicit 
    weak fields. This is an experimental feature that allows the linker to 
    strip out more unused messages than previously was possible. 
  * Fixed SourceCodeInfo for interpreted options and extension range options. 
  * Fixed always_print_enums_as_ints option for JSON serialization. 
  * Added support for ignoring unknown enum values when parsing JSON. 
  * Create std::string in Arena memory. 
  * Fixed ValidateDateTime to correctly check the day. 
  * Fixed bug in ZeroCopyStreamByteSink. 
  * Various other cleanups and fixes. 
 
  Java 
  * Dropped support for Java 6. 
  * Added a UTF-8 decoder that uses Unsafe to directly decode a byte buffer. 
  * Added deprecation annotations to generated code for deprecated oneof 
    fields. 
  * Fixed map field serialization in DynamicMessage. 
  * Cleanup and documentation for Java Lite runtime. 
  * Various other fixes and cleanups 
  * Fixed unboxed arraylists to handle an edge case 
  * Improved performance for copying between unboxed arraylists 
  * Fixed lite protobuf to avoid Java compiler warnings 
  * Improved test coverage for lite runtime 
  * Performance improvements for lite runtime 
 
  Python 
  * Fixed bytes/string map key incompatibility between C++ and pure-Python 
    implementations (issue #4029) 
  * Added __init__.py files to compiler and util subpackages 
  * Use /MT for all Windows versions 
  * Fixed an issue affecting the Python-C++ implementation when used with 
    Cython (issue #2896) 
  * Various text format fixes 
  * Various fixes to resolve behavior differences between the pure-Python and 
    Python-C++ implementations 
 
  PHP 
  * Added php_metadata_namespace to control the file path of generated metadata 
    file. 
  * Changed generated classes of nested message/enum. E.g., Foo.Bar, which 
    previously generates Foo_Bar, now generates Foo/Bar 
  * Added array constructor. When creating a message, users can pass a php 
    array whose content is field name to value pairs into constructor. The 
    created message will be initialized according to the array. Note that 
    message field should use a message value instead of a sub-array. 
  * Various bug fixes. 
 
  Objective-C 
  * We removed some helper class methods from GPBDictionary to shrink the size 
    of the library, the functionary is still there, but you may need to do some 
    specific +alloc / -init… methods instead. 
  * Minor improvements in the performance of object field getters/setters by 
    avoiding some memory management overhead. 
  * Fix a memory leak during the raising of some errors. 
  * Make header importing completely order independent. 
  * Small code improvements for things the undefined behaviors compiler option 
    was flagging. 
 
  Ruby 
  * Added ruby_package file option to control the module of generated class. 
  * Various bug fixes. 
 
  Javascript 
  * Allow setting string to int64 field. 
 
  Csharp 
  * Unknown fields are now parsed and then sent back on the wire. They can be 
    discarded at parse time via a CodedInputStream option. 
  * Movement towards working with .NET 3.5 and Unity 
  * Expression trees are no longer used 
  * AOT generics issues in Unity/il2cpp have a workaround (see this commit for 
    details) 
  * Floating point values are now compared bitwise (affects NaN value 
    comparisons) 
  * The default size limit when parsing is now 2GB rather than 64MB 
  * MessageParser now supports parsing from a slice of a byte array 
  * JSON list parsing now accepts null values where the underlying proto 
    representation does 
 
2017-12-20 version 3.5.1 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
  Planned Future Changes 
  * Make C++ implementation C++11 only: we plan to require C++11 to build 
    protobuf code starting from 3.6.0 release. Please join this github issue: 
    https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/issues/2780 to provide your feedback. 
 
  protoc 
  * Fixed a bug introduced in 3.5.0 and protoc in Windows now accepts non-ascii 
    characters in paths again. 
 
  C++ 
  * Removed several usages of C++11 features in the code base. 
  * Fixed some compiler warnings. 
 
  PHP 
  * Fixed memory leak in C-extension implementation. 
  * Added discardUnknokwnFields API. 
  * Removed duplicated typedef in C-extension headers. 
  * Avoided calling private php methods (timelib_update_ts). 
  * Fixed Any.php to use fully-qualified name for DescriptorPool. 
 
  Ruby 
  * Added Google_Protobuf_discard_unknown for discarding unknown fields in 
    messages. 
 
  C# 
  * Unknown fields are now preserved by default. 
  * Floating point values are now bitwise compared, affecting message equality 
    check and Contains() API in map and repeated fields. 
 
 
2017-11-13 version 3.5.0 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
  Planned Future Changes 
  * Make C++ implementation C++11 only: we plan to require C++11 to build 
    protobuf code starting from 3.6.0 release. Please join this github issue: 
    https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/issues/2780 to provide your feedback. 
 
  General 
  * Unknown fields are now preserved in proto3 for most of the language 
    implementations for proto3 by default. See the per-language section for 
    details. 
  * reserve keyword are now supported in enums 
 
  C++ 
  * Proto3 messages are now preserving unknown fields by default. If you rely on 
    unknowns fields being dropped. Please use DiscardUnknownFields() explicitly. 
  * Deprecated the unsafe_arena_release_* and unsafe_arena_add_allocated_* 
    methods for string fields. 
  * Added move constructor and move assignment to RepeatedField, 
    RepeatedPtrField and google::protobuf::Any. 
  * Added perfect forwarding in Arena::CreateMessage 
  * In-progress experimental support for implicit weak fields with lite protos. 
    This feature allows the linker to strip out more unused messages and reduce 
    binary size. 
  * Various performance optimizations. 
 
  Java 
  * Proto3 messages are now preserving unknown fields by default. If you’d like 
    to drop unknown fields, please use the DiscardUnknownFieldsParser API. For 
    example: 
      Parser<Foo> parser = DiscardUnknownFieldsParser.wrap(Foo.parser()); 
      Foo foo = parser.parseFrom(input); 
  * Added a new CodedInputStream decoder for Iterable<ByteBuffer> with direct 
    ByteBuffers. 
  * TextFormat now prints unknown length-delimited fields as messages if 
    possible. 
  * FieldMaskUtil.merge() no longer creates unnecessary empty messages when a 
    message field is unset in both source message and destination message. 
  * Various performance optimizations. 
 
  Python 
  * Proto3 messages are now preserving unknown fields by default. Use 
    message.DiscardUnknownFields() to drop unknown fields. 
  * Add FieldDescriptor.file in generated code. 
  * Add descriptor pool FindOneofByName in pure python. 
  * Change unknown enum values into unknown field set . 
  * Add more Python dict/list compatibility for Struct/ListValue. 
  * Add utf-8 support for text_format.Merge()/Parse(). 
  * Support numeric unknown enum values for proto3 JSON format. 
  * Add warning for Unexpected end-group tag in cpp extension. 
 
  PHP 
  * Proto3 messages are now preserving unknown fields. 
  * Provide well known type messages in runtime. 
  * Add prefix ‘PB’ to generated class of reserved names. 
  * Fixed all conformance tests for encode/decode json in php runtime. C 
    extension needs more work. 
 
  Objective-C 
  * Fixed some issues around copying of messages with unknown fields and then 
    mutating the unknown fields in the copy. 
 
  C# 
  * Added unknown field support in JsonParser. 
  * Fixed oneof message field merge. 
  * Simplify parsing messages from array slices. 
 
  Ruby 
  * Unknown fields are now preserved by default. 
  * Fixed several bugs for segment fault. 
 
  Javascript 
  * Decoder can handle both paced and unpacked data no matter how the proto is 
    defined. 
  * Decoder now accept long varint for 32 bit integers. 
 
 
2017-08-14 version 3.4.0 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
  Planned Future Changes 
  * There are some changes that are not included in this release but are planned 
    for the near future 
      - Preserve unknown fields in proto3: We are going to bring unknown fields 
        back into proto3. In this release, some languages start to support 
        preserving unknown fields in proto3, controlled by flags/options. Some 
        languages also introduce explicit APIs to drop unknown fields for 
        migration. Please read the change log sections by languages for details. 
        For general timeline and plan: 
 
          https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KMRX-G91Aa-Y2FkEaHeeviLRRNblgIahbsk4wA14gRk/view 
 
        For issues and discussions: 
 
          https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/issues/272 
 
      - Make C++ implementation C++11 only: we plan to require C++11 to build 
        protobuf code starting from 3.5.0 or 3.6.0 release, after unknown fields 
        semantic changes are finished. Please join this 
        github issue: 
 
          https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/issues/2780 
 
        to provide your feedback. 
 
  General 
  * Extension ranges now accept options and are customizable. 
  * "reserve" keyword now supports “max” in field number ranges, 
    e.g.  reserve 1000 to max; 
 
  C++ 
  * Proto3 messages are now able to preserve unknown fields. The default 
    behavior is still to drop unknowns, which will be flipped in a future 
    release. If you rely on unknowns fields being dropped. Please use 
    Message::DiscardUnknownFields() explicitly. 
  * Packable proto3 fields are now packed by default in serialization. 
  * Following C++11 features are introduced when C++11 is available: 
      - move-constructor and move-assignment are introduced to messages 
      - Repeated fields constructor now takes std::initializer_list 
      - rvalue setters are introduced for string fields 
  * Experimental Table-Driven parsing and serialization available to test. To 
    enable it, pass in table_driven_parsing table_driven_serialization protoc 
    generator flags for C++ 
 
      $ protoc --cpp_out=table_driven_parsing,table_driven_serialization:./ \ 
        test.proto 
 
  * lite generator parameter supported by the generator. Once set, all generated 
    files, use lite runtime regardless of the optimizer_for setting in the 
    .proto file. 
  * Various optimizations to make C++ code more performant on PowerPC platform 
  * Fixed maps data corruption when the maps are modified by both reflection API 
    and generated API. 
  * Deterministic serialization on maps reflection now uses stable sort. 
  * file() accessors are introduced to various *Descriptor classes to make 
    writing template function easier. 
  * ByteSize() and SpaceUsed() are deprecated.Use ByteSizeLong() and 
    SpaceUsedLong() instead 
  * Consistent hash function is used for maps in DEBUG and NDEBUG build. 
  * "using namespace std" is removed from stubs/common.h 
  * Various performance optimizations and bug fixes 
 
  Java 
  * Introduced new parser API DiscardUnknownFieldsParser in preparation of 
    proto3 unknown fields preservation change. Users who want to drop unknown 
    fields should migrate to use this new parser API. For example: 
 
      Parser<Foo> parser = DiscardUnknownFieldsParser.wrap(Foo.parser()); 
      Foo foo = parser.parseFrom(input); 
 
  * Introduced new TextFormat API printUnicodeFieldValue() that prints field 
    value without escaping unicode characters. 
  * Added Durations.compare(Duration, Duration) and 
    Timestamps.compare(Timestamp, Timestamp). 
  * JsonFormat now accepts base64url encoded bytes fields. 
  * Optimized CodedInputStream to do less copies when parsing large bytes 
    fields. 
  * Optimized TextFormat to allocate less memory when printing. 
 
  Python 
  * SerializeToString API is changed to SerializeToString(self, **kwargs), 
    deterministic parameter is accepted for deterministic serialization. 
  * Added sort_keys parameter in json format to make the output deterministic. 
  * Added indent parameter in json format. 
  * Added extension support in json format. 
  * Added __repr__ support for repeated field in cpp implementation. 
  * Added file in FieldDescriptor. 
  * Added pretty-print filter to text format. 
  * Services and method descriptors are always printed even if generic_service 
    option is turned off. 
  * Note: AppEngine 2.5 is deprecated on June 2017 that AppEngine 2.5 will 
    never update protobuf runtime. Users who depend on AppEngine 2.5 should use 
    old protoc. 
 
  PHP 
  * Support PHP generic services. Specify file option php_generic_service=true 
    to enable generating service interface. 
  * Message, repeated and map fields setters take value instead of reference. 
  * Added map iterator in c extension. 
  * Support json  encode/decode. 
  * Added more type info in getter/setter phpdoc 
  * Fixed the problem that c extension and php implementation cannot be used 
    together. 
  * Added file option php_namespace to use custom php namespace instead of 
    package. 
  * Added fluent setter. 
  * Added descriptor API in runtime for custom encode/decode. 
  * Various bug fixes. 
 
  Objective-C 
  * Fix for GPBExtensionRegistry copying and add tests. 
  * Optimize GPBDictionary.m codegen to reduce size of overall library by 46K 
    per architecture. 
  * Fix some cases of reading of 64bit map values. 
  * Properly error on a tag with field number zero. 
  * Preserve unknown fields in proto3 syntax files. 
  * Document the exceptions on some of the writing apis. 
 
  C# 
  * Implemented IReadOnlyDictionary<K,V> in MapField<K,V> 
  * Added TryUnpack method for Any message in addition to Unpack. 
  * Converted C# projects to MSBuild (csproj) format. 
 
  Ruby 
  * Several bug fixes. 
 
  Javascript 
  * Added support of field option js_type. Now one can specify the JS type of a 
    64-bit integer field to be string in the generated code by adding option 
    [jstype = JS_STRING] on the field. 
 
2017-04-05 version 3.3.0 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Objective-C/C#/Ruby/JavaScript) 
  Planned Future Changes 
  * There are some changes that are not included in this release but are 
    planned for the near future: 
      - Preserve unknown fields in proto3: please read this doc: 
 
          https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KMRX-G91Aa-Y2FkEaHeeviLRRNblgIahbsk4wA14gRk/view 
 
        for the timeline and follow up this github issue: 
 
          https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/issues/272 
 
        for discussion. 
      - Make C++ implementation C++11 only: we plan to require C++11 to build 
        protobuf code starting from 3.4.0 or 3.5.0 release. Please join this 
        github issue: 
 
          https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/issues/2780 
 
        to provide your feedback. 
 
  C++ 
  * Fixed map fields serialization of DynamicMessage to correctly serialize 
    both key and value regardless of their presence. 
  * Parser now rejects field number 0 correctly. 
  * New API Message::SpaceUsedLong() that’s equivalent to 
    Message::SpaceUsed() but returns the value in size_t. 
  * JSON support 
    - New flag always_print_enums_as_ints in JsonPrintOptions. 
    - New flag preserve_proto_field_names in JsonPrintOptions. It will instruct 
      the JSON printer to use the original field name declared in the .proto 
      file instead of converting them to lowerCamelCase when printing JSON. 
    - JsonPrintOptions.always_print_primtive_fields now works for oneof message 
      fields. 
    - Fixed a bug that doesn’t allow different fields to set the same json_name 
      value. 
    - Fixed a performance bug that causes excessive memory copy when printing 
      large messages. 
  * Various performance optimizations. 
 
  Java 
  * Map field setters eagerly validate inputs and throw NullPointerExceptions 
    as appropriate. 
  * Added ByteBuffer overloads to the generated parsing methods and the Parser 
    interface. 
  * proto3 enum's getNumber() method now throws on UNRECOGNIZED values. 
  * Output of JsonFormat is now locale independent. 
 
  Python 
  * Added FindServiceByName() in the pure-Python DescriptorPool. This works only 
    for descriptors added with DescriptorPool.Add(). Generated descriptor_pool 
    does not support this yet. 
  * Added a descriptor_pool parameter for parsing Any in text_format.Parse(). 
  * descriptor_pool.FindFileContainingSymbol() now is able to find nested 
    extensions. 
  * Extending empty [] to repeated field now sets parent message presence. 
 
  PHP 
  * Added file option php_class_prefix. The prefix will be prepended to all 
    generated classes defined in the file. 
  * When encoding, negative int32 values are sign-extended to int64. 
  * Repeated/Map field setter accepts a regular PHP array. Type checking is 
    done on the array elements. 
  * encode/decode are renamed to serializeToString/mergeFromString. 
  * Added mergeFrom, clear method on Message. 
  * Fixed a bug that oneof accessor didn’t return the field name that is 
    actually set. 
  * C extension now works with php7. 
  * This is the first GA release of PHP. We guarantee that old generated code 
    can always work with new runtime and new generated code. 
 
  Objective-C 
  * Fixed help for GPBTimestamp for dates before the epoch that contain 
    fractional seconds. 
  * Added GPBMessageDropUnknownFieldsRecursively() to remove unknowns from a 
    message and any sub messages. 
  * Addressed a threading race in extension registration/lookup. 
  * Increased the max message parsing depth to 100 to match the other languages. 
  * Removed some use of dispatch_once in favor of atomic compare/set since it 
    needs to be heap based. 
  * Fixes for new Xcode 8.3 warnings. 
 
  C# 
  * Fixed MapField.Values.CopyTo, which would throw an exception unnecessarily 
    if provided exactly the right size of array to copy to. 
  * Fixed enum JSON formatting when multiple names mapped to the same numeric 
    value. 
  * Added JSON formatting option to format enums as integers. 
  * Modified RepeatedField<T> to implement IReadOnlyList<T>. 
  * Introduced the start of custom option handling; it's not as pleasant as it 
    might be, but the information is at least present. We expect to extend code 
    generation to improve this in the future. 
  * Introduced ByteString.FromStream and ByteString.FromStreamAsync to 
    efficiently create a ByteString from a stream. 
  * Added whole-message deprecation, which decorates the class with [Obsolete]. 
 
  Ruby 
  * Fixed Message#to_h for messages with map fields. 
  * Fixed memcpy() in binary gems to work for old glibc, without breaking the 
    build for non-glibc libc’s like musl. 
 
  Javascript 
  * Added compatibility tests for version 3.0.0. 
  * Added conformance tests. 
  * Fixed serialization of extensions: we need to emit a value even if it is 
    falsy (like the number 0). 
  * Use closurebuilder.py in favor of calcdeps.py for compiling JavaScript. 
 
2017-01-23 version 3.2.0 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Ruby/Objective-C/C#/JavaScript/Lite) 
  General 
  * Added protoc version number to protoc plugin protocol. It can be used by 
    protoc plugin to detect which version of protoc is used with the plugin and 
    mitigate known problems in certain version of protoc. 
 
  C++ 
  * The default parsing byte size limit has been raised from 64MB to 2GB. 
  * Added rvalue setters for non-arena string fields. 
  * Enabled debug logging for Android. 
  * Fixed a double-free problem when using Reflection::SetAllocatedMessage() 
    with extension fields. 
  * Fixed several deterministic serialization bugs: 
    * MessageLite::SerializeAsString() now respects the global deterministic 
      serialization flag. 
    * Extension fields are serialized deterministically as well.  Fixed protocol 
      compiler to correctly report importing-self as an error. 
  * Fixed FileDescriptor::DebugString() to print custom options correctly. 
  * Various performance/codesize optimizations and cleanups. 
 
  Java 
  * The default parsing byte size limit has been raised from 64MB to 2GB. 
  * Added recursion limit when parsing JSON. 
  * Fixed a bug that enumType.getDescriptor().getOptions() doesn't have custom 
    options. 
  * Fixed generated code to support field numbers up to 2^29-1. 
 
  Python 
  * You can now assign NumPy scalars/arrays (np.int32, np.int64) to protobuf 
    fields, and assigning other numeric types has been optimized for 
    performance. 
  * Pure-Python: message types are now garbage-collectable. 
  * Python/C++: a lot of internal cleanup/refactoring. 
 
  PHP (Alpha) 
  * For 64-bit integers type (int64/uint64/sfixed64/fixed64/sint64), use PHP 
    integer on 64-bit environment and PHP string on 32-bit environment. 
  * PHP generated code also conforms to PSR-4 now. 
  * Fixed ZTS build for c extension. 
  * Fixed c extension build on Mac. 
  * Fixed c extension build on 32-bit linux. 
  * Fixed the bug that message without namespace is not found in the descriptor 
    pool. (#2240) 
  * Fixed the bug that repeated field is not iterable in c extension. 
  * Message names Empty will be converted to GPBEmpty in generated code. 
  * Added phpdoc in generated files. 
  * The released API is almost stable. Unless there is large problem, we won't 
    change it. See 
    https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/reference/php-generated 
    for more details. 
 
  Objective-C 
  * Added support for push/pop of the stream limit on CodedInputStream for 
    anyone doing manual parsing. 
 
  C# 
  * No changes. 
 
  Ruby 
  * Message objects now support #respond_to? for field getters/setters. 
  * You can now compare “message == non_message_object” and it will return false 
    instead of throwing an exception. 
  * JRuby: fixed #hashCode to properly reflect the values in the message. 
 
  Javascript 
  * Deserialization of repeated fields no longer has quadratic performance 
    behavior. 
  * UTF-8 encoding/decoding now properly supports high codepoints. 
  * Added convenience methods for some well-known types: Any, Struct, and 
    Timestamp. These make it easier to convert data between native JavaScript 
    types and the well-known protobuf types. 
 
2016-09-23 version 3.1.0 (C++/Java/Python/PHP/Ruby/Objective-C/C#/JavaScript/Lite) 
  General 
  * Proto3 support in PHP (alpha). 
  * Various bug fixes. 
 
  C++ 
  * Added MessageLite::ByteSizeLong() that’s equivalent to 
    MessageLite::ByteSize() but returns the value in size_t. Useful to check 
    whether a message is over the 2G size limit that protobuf can support. 
  * Moved default_instances to global variables. This allows default_instance 
    addresses to be known at compile time. 
  * Adding missing generic gcc 64-bit atomicops. 
  * Restore New*Callback into google::protobuf namespace since these are used 
    by the service stubs code 
  * JSON support. 
    * Fixed some conformance issues. 
  * Fixed a JSON serialization bug for bytes fields. 
 
  Java 
  * Fixed a bug in TextFormat that doesn’t accept empty repeated fields (i.e., 
    “field: [ ]”). 
  * JSON support 
    * Fixed JsonFormat to do correct snake_case-to-camelCase conversion for 
      non-style-conforming field names. 
    * Fixed JsonFormat to parse empty Any message correctly. 
    * Added an option to JsonFormat.Parser to ignore unknown fields. 
  * Experimental API 
    * Added UnsafeByteOperations.unsafeWrap(byte[]) to wrap a byte array into 
      ByteString without copy. 
 
  Python 
  * JSON support 
    * Fixed some conformance issues. 
 
  PHP (Alpha) 
  * We have added the proto3 support for PHP via both a pure PHP package and a 
    native c extension. The pure PHP package is intended to provide usability 
    to wider range of PHP platforms, while the c extension is intended to 
    provide higher performance. Both implementations provide the same runtime 
    APIs and share the same generated code. Users don’t need to re-generate 
    code for the same proto definition when they want to switch the 
    implementation later. The pure PHP package is included in the php/src 
    directory, and the c extension is included in the php/ext directory. 
 
    Both implementations provide idiomatic PHP APIs: 
    * All messages and enums are defined as PHP classes. 
    * All message fields can only be accessed via getter/setter. 
    * Both repeated field elements and map elements are stored in containers 
      that act like a normal PHP array. 
 
    Unlike several existing third-party PHP implementations for protobuf, our 
    implementations are built on a "strongly-typed" philosophy: message fields 
    and array/map containers will throw exceptions eagerly when values of the 
    incorrect type (not including those that can be type converted, e.g., 
    double <-> integer <-> numeric string) are inserted. 
 
    Currently, pure PHP runtime supports php5.5, 5.6 and 7 on linux. C 
    extension runtime supports php5.5 and 5.6 on linux. 
 
    See php/README.md for more details about installment. See 
    https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/phptutorial for more 
    details about APIs. 
 
  Objective-C 
  * Helpers are now provided for working the Any well known type (see 
    GPBWellKnownTypes.h for the api additions). 
  * Some improvements in startup code (especially when extensions aren’t used). 
 
  Javascript 
  * Fixed missing import of jspb.Map 
  * Fixed valueWriterFn variable name 
 
  Ruby 
  * Fixed hash computation for JRuby's RubyMessage 
  * Make sure map parsing frames are GC-rooted. 
  * Added API support for well-known types. 
 
  C# 
  * Removed check on dependency in the C# reflection API. 
 
2016-09-06 version 3.0.2 (C++/Java/Python/Ruby/Objective-C/C#/JavaScript/Lite) 
  General 
  * Various bug fixes. 
 
  Objective C 
  * Fix for oneofs in proto3 syntax files where fields were set to the zero 
    value. 
  * Fix for embedded null character in strings. 
  * CocoaDocs support 
 
  Ruby 
  * Fixed memory corruption bug in parsing that could occur under GC pressure. 
 
  Javascript 
  * jspb.Map is now properly exported to CommonJS modules. 
 
  C# 
  * Removed legacy_enum_values flag. 
 
 
2016-07-27 version 3.0.0 (C++/Java/Python/Ruby/Objective-C/C#/JavaScript/Lite) 
  General 
  * This log only contains changes since the beta-4 release. Summarized change 
    log since the last stable release (v2.6.1) can be found in the github 
    release page. 
 
  Compatibility Notice 
  * v3.0.0 is the first API stable release of the v3.x series. We do not expect 
    any future API breaking changes. 
  * For C++, Java Lite and Objective-C, source level compatibility is 
    guaranteed.  Upgrading from v3.0.0 to newer minor version releases will be 
    source compatible. For example, if your code compiles against protobuf 
    v3.0.0, it will continue to compile after you upgrade protobuf library to 
    v3.1.0. 
  * For other languages, both source level compatibility and binary level 
    compatibility are guaranteed. For example, if you have a Java binary built 
    against protobuf v3.0.0. After switching the protobuf runtime binary to 
    v3.1.0, your built binary should continue to work. 
  * Compatibility is only guaranteed for documented API and documented 
    behaviors. If you are using undocumented API (e.g., use anything in the C++ 
    internal namespace), it can be broken by minor version releases in an 
    undetermined manner. 
 
  Ruby 
  * When you assign a string field `a.string_field = "X"`, we now call 
    #encode(UTF-8) on the string and freeze the copy. This saves you from 
    needing to ensure the string is already encoded as UTF-8. It also prevents 
    you from mutating the string after it has been assigned (this is how we 
    ensure it stays valid UTF-8). 
  * The generated file for `foo.proto` is now `foo_pb.rb` instead of just 
    `foo.rb`. This makes it easier to see which imports/requires are from 
    protobuf generated code, and also prevents conflicts with any `foo.rb` file 
    you might have written directly in Ruby. It is a backward-incompatible 
    change: you will need to update all of your `require` statements. 
  * For package names like `foo_bar`, we now translate this to the Ruby module 
    `FooBar`. This is more idiomatic Ruby than what we used to do (`Foo_bar`). 
 
  JavaScript 
  * Scalar fields like numbers and boolean now return defaults instead of 
    `undefined` or `null` when they are unset. You can test for presence 
    explicitly by calling `hasFoo()`, which we now generate for scalar fields. 
 
  Java Lite 
  * Java Lite is now implemented as a separate plugin, maintained in the 
    `javalite` branch. Both lite runtime and protoc artifacts will be available 
    in Maven. 
 
  C# 
  * Target platforms now .NET 4.5, selected portable subsets and .NET Core. 
  * legacy_enum_values option is no longer supported. 
 
2016-07-15 version 3.0.0-beta-4 (C++/Java/Python/Ruby/Objective-C/C#/JavaScript) 
  General 
  * Added a deterministic serialization API for C++. The deterministic 
    serialization guarantees that given a binary, equal messages will be 
    serialized to the same bytes. This allows applications like MapReduce to 
    group equal messages based on the serialized bytes. The deterministic 
    serialization is, however, NOT canonical across languages; it is also 
    unstable across different builds with schema changes due to unknown fields. 
    Users who need canonical serialization, e.g. persistent storage in a 
    canonical form, fingerprinting, etc, should define their own 
    canonicalization specification and implement the serializer using reflection 
    APIs rather than relying on this API. 
  * Added OneofOptions. You can now define custom options for oneof groups. 
      import "google/protobuf/descriptor.proto"; 
      extend google.protobuf.OneofOptions { 
        optional int32 my_oneof_extension = 12345; 
      } 
      message Foo { 
        oneof oneof_group { 
          (my_oneof_extension) = 54321; 
          ... 
        } 
      } 
 
  C++ (beta) 
  * Introduced a deterministic serialization API in 
    CodedOutputStream::SetSerializationDeterministic(bool). See the notes about 
    deterministic serialization in the General section. 
  * Added google::protobuf::Map::swap() to swap two map fields. 
  * Fixed a memory leak when calling Reflection::ReleaseMessage() on a message 
    allocated on arena. 
  * Improved error reporting when parsing text format protos. 
  * JSON 
      - Added a new parser option to ignore unknown fields when parsing JSON. 
      - Added convenient methods for message to/from JSON conversion. 
  * Various performance optimizations. 
 
  Java (beta) 
  * File option "java_generate_equals_and_hash" is now deprecated. equals() and 
    hashCode() methods are generated by default. 
  * Added a new JSON printer option "omittingInsignificantWhitespace" to produce 
    a more compact JSON output. The printer will pretty-print by default. 
  * Updated Java runtime to be compatible with 2.5.0/2.6.1 generated protos. 
 
  Python (beta) 
  * Added support to pretty print Any messages in text format. 
  * Added a flag to ignore unknown fields when parsing JSON. 
  * Bugfix: "@type" field of a JSON Any message is now correctly put before 
    other fields. 
 
  Objective-C (beta) 
  * Updated the code to support compiling with more compiler warnings 
    enabled. (Issue 1616) 
  * Exposing more detailed errors for parsing failures. (PR 1623) 
  * Small (breaking) change to the naming of some methods on the support classes 
    for map<>. There were collisions with the system provided KVO support, so 
    the names were changed to avoid those issues.  (PR 1699) 
  * Fixed for proper Swift bridging of error handling during parsing. (PR 1712) 
  * Complete support for generating sources that will go into a Framework and 
    depend on generated sources from other Frameworks. (Issue 1457) 
 
  C# (beta) 
  * RepeatedField optimizations. 
  * Support for .NET Core. 
  * Minor bug fixes. 
  * Ability to format a single value in JsonFormatter (advanced usage only). 
  * Modifications to attributes applied to generated code. 
 
  Javascript (alpha) 
  * Maps now have a real map API instead of being treated as repeated fields. 
  * Well-known types are now provided in the google-protobuf package, and the 
    code generator knows to require() them from that package. 
  * Bugfix: non-canonical varints are correctly decoded. 
 
  Ruby (alpha) 
  * Accessors for oneof fields now return default values instead of nil. 
 
  Java Lite 
  * Java lite support is removed from protocol compiler. It will be supported 
    as a protocol compiler plugin in a separate code branch. 
 
2016-05-16 version 3.0.0-beta-3 (C++/Java/Python/Ruby/Nano/Objective-C/C#/JavaScript) 
  General 
  * Supported Proto3 lite-runtime in C++/Java for mobile platforms. 
  * Any type now supports APIs to specify prefixes other than 
    type.googleapis.com 
  * Removed javanano_use_deprecated_package option; Nano will always has its own 
    ".nano" package. 
 
  C++ (Beta) 
  * Improved hash maps. 
      - Improved hash maps comments. In particular, please note that equal hash 
        maps will not necessarily have the same iteration order and 
        serialization. 
      - Added a new hash maps implementation that will become the default in a 
        later release. 
  * Arenas 
      - Several inlined methods in Arena were moved to out-of-line to improve 
        build performance and code size. 
      - Added SpaceAllocatedAndUsed() to report both space used and allocated 
      - Added convenient class UnsafeArenaAllocatedRepeatedPtrFieldBackInserter 
  * Any 
      - Allow custom type URL prefixes in Any packing. 
      - TextFormat now expand the Any type rather than printing bytes. 
  * Performance optimizations and various bug fixes. 
 
  Java (Beta) 
  * Introduced an ExperimentalApi annotation. Annotated APIs are experimental 
    and are subject to change in a backward incompatible way in future releases. 
  * Introduced zero-copy serialization as an ExperimentalApi 
      - Introduction of the `ByteOutput` interface. This is similar to 
        `OutputStream` but provides semantics for lazy writing (i.e. no 
        immediate copy required) of fields that are considered to be immutable. 
      - `ByteString` now supports writing to a `ByteOutput`, which will directly 
        expose the internals of the `ByteString` (i.e. `byte[]` or `ByteBuffer`) 
        to the `ByteOutput` without copying. 
      - `CodedOutputStream` now supports writing to a `ByteOutput`. `ByteString` 
        instances that are too large to fit in the internal buffer will be 
        (lazily) written to the `ByteOutput` directly. 
      - This allows applications using large `ByteString` fields to avoid 
        duplication of these fields entirely. Such an application can supply a 
        `ByteOutput` that chains together the chunks received from 
        `CodedOutputStream` before forwarding them onto the IO system. 
  * Other related changes to `CodedOutputStream` 
      - Additional use of `sun.misc.Unsafe` where possible to perform fast 
        access to `byte[]` and `ByteBuffer` values and avoiding unnecessary 
        range checking. 
      - `ByteBuffer`-backed `CodedOutputStream` now writes directly to the 
        `ByteBuffer` rather than to an intermediate array. 
  * Improved lite-runtime. 
      - Lite protos now implement deep equals/hashCode/toString 
      - Significantly improved the performance of Builder#mergeFrom() and 
        Builder#mergeDelimitedFrom() 
  * Various bug fixes and small feature enhancement. 
      - Fixed stack overflow when in hashCode() for infinite recursive oneofs. 
      - Fixed the lazy field parsing in lite to merge rather than overwrite. 
      - TextFormat now supports reporting line/column numbers on errors. 
      - Updated to add appropriate @Override for better compiler errors. 
 
  Python (Beta) 
  * Added JSON format for Any, Struct, Value and ListValue 
  * [ ] is now accepted for both repeated scalar fields and repeated message 
    fields in text format parser. 
  * Numerical field name is now supported in text format. 
  * Added DiscardUnknownFields API for python protobuf message. 
 
  Objective-C (Beta) 
  * Proto comments now come over as HeaderDoc comments in the generated sources 
    so Xcode can pick them up and display them. 
  * The library headers have been updated to use HeaderDoc comments so Xcode can 
    pick them up and display them. 
  * The per message and per field overhead in both generated code and runtime 
    object sizes was reduced. 
  * Generated code now include deprecated annotations when the proto file 
    included them. 
 
  C# (Beta) 
  In general: some changes are breaking, which require regenerating messages. 
  Most user-written code will not be impacted *except* for the renaming of enum 
  values. 
 
  * Allow custom type URL prefixes in `Any` packing, and ignore them when 
    unpacking 
  * `protoc` is now in a separate NuGet package (Google.Protobuf.Tools) 
  * New option: `internal_access` to generate internal classes 
  * Enum values are now PascalCased, and if there's a prefix which matches the 
    name of the enum, that is removed (so an enum `COLOR` with a value 
    `COLOR_BLUE` would generate a value of just `Blue`). An option 
    (`legacy_enum_values`) is temporarily available to disable this, but the 
    option will be removed for GA. 
  * `json_name` option is now honored 
  * If group tags are encountered when parsing, they are validated more 
    thoroughly (although we don't support actual groups) 
  * NuGet dependencies are better specified 
  * Breaking: `Preconditions` is renamed to `ProtoPreconditions` 
  * Breaking: `GeneratedCodeInfo` is renamed to `GeneratedClrTypeInfo` 
  * `JsonFormatter` now allows writing to a `TextWriter` 
  * New interface, `ICustomDiagnosticMessage` to allow more compact 
    representations from `ToString` 
  * `CodedInputStream` and `CodedOutputStream` now implement `IDisposable`, 
    which simply disposes of the streams they were constructed with 
  * Map fields no longer support null values (in line with other languages) 
  * Improvements in JSON formatting and parsing 
 
  Javascript (Alpha) 
  * Better support for "bytes" fields: bytes fields can be read as either a 
    base64 string or UInt8Array (in environments where TypedArray is supported). 
  * New support for CommonJS imports.  This should make it easier to use the 
    JavaScript support in Node.js and tools like WebPack.  See js/README.md for 
    more information. 
  * Some significant internal refactoring to simplify and modularize the code. 
 
  Ruby (Alpha) 
  * JSON serialization now properly uses camelCased names, with a runtime option 
    that will preserve original names from .proto files instead. 
  * Well-known types are now included in the distribution. 
  * Release now includes binary gems for Windows, Mac, and Linux instead of just 
    source gems. 
  * Bugfix for serializing oneofs. 
 
  C++/Java Lite (Alpha) 
    A new "lite" generator parameter was introduced in the protoc for C++ and 
    Java for Proto3 syntax messages. Example usage: 
 
     ./protoc --cpp_out=lite:$OUTPUT_PATH foo.proto 
 
    The protoc will treat the current input and all the transitive dependencies 
    as LITE. The same generator parameter must be used to generate the 
    dependencies. 
 
    In Proto3 syntax files, "optimized_for=LITE_RUNTIME" is no longer supported. 
 
 
2015-12-30 version 3.0.0-beta-2 (C++/Java/Python/Ruby/Nano/Objective-C/C#/JavaScript) 
  General 
  * Introduced a new language implementation: JavaScript. 
  * Added a new field option "json_name". By default proto field names are 
    converted to "lowerCamelCase" in proto3 JSON format. This option can be 
    used to override this behavior and specify a different JSON name for the 
    field. 
  * Added conformance tests to ensure implementations are following proto3 JSON 
    specification. 
 
  C++ (Beta) 
  * Various bug fixes and improvements to the JSON support utility: 
      - Duplicate map keys in JSON are now rejected (i.e., translation will 
        fail). 
      - Fixed wire-format for google.protobuf.Value/ListValue. 
      - Fixed precision loss when converting google.protobuf.Timestamp. 
      - Fixed a bug when parsing invalid UTF-8 code points. 
      - Fixed a memory leak. 
      - Reduced call stack usage. 
 
  Java (Beta) 
  * Cleaned up some unused methods on CodedOutputStream. 
  * Presized lists for packed fields during parsing in the lite runtime to 
    reduce allocations and improve performance. 
  * Improved the performance of unknown fields in the lite runtime. 
  * Introduced UnsafeByteStrings to support zero-copy ByteString creation. 
  * Various bug fixes and improvements to the JSON support utility: 
      - Fixed a thread-safety bug. 
      - Added a new option “preservingProtoFieldNames” to JsonFormat. 
      - Added a new option “includingDefaultValueFields” to JsonFormat. 
      - Updated the JSON utility to comply with proto3 JSON specification. 
 
  Python (Beta) 
  * Added proto3 JSON format utility. It includes support for all field types 
    and a few well-known types except for Any and Struct. 
  * Added runtime support for Any, Timestamp, Duration and FieldMask. 
  * [ ] is now accepted for repeated scalar fields in text format parser. 
  * Map fields now have proper O(1) performance for lookup/insert/delete 
    when using the Python/C++ implementation. They were previously using O(n) 
    search-based algorithms because the C++ reflection interface didn't 
    support true map operations. 
 
  Objective-C (Beta) 
  * Various bug-fixes and code tweaks to pass more strict compiler warnings. 
  * Now has conformance test coverage and is passing all tests. 
 
  C# (Beta) 
  * Various bug-fixes. 
  * Code generation: Files generated in directories based on namespace. 
  * Code generation: Include comments from .proto files in XML doc 
    comments (naively) 
  * Code generation: Change organization/naming of "reflection class" (access 
    to file descriptor) 
  * Code generation and library: Add Parser property to MessageDescriptor, 
    and introduce a non-generic parser type. 
  * Library: Added TypeRegistry to support JSON parsing/formatting of Any. 
  * Library: Added Any.Pack/Unpack support. 
  * Library: Implemented JSON parsing. 
 
  Javascript (Alpha) 
  * Added proto3 support for JavaScript. The runtime is written in pure 
    JavaScript and works in browsers and in Node.js. To generate JavaScript 
    code for your proto, invoke protoc with "--js_out". See js/README.md 
    for more build instructions. 
 
2015-08-26 version 3.0.0-beta-1 (C++/Java/Python/Ruby/Nano/Objective-C/C#) 
  About Beta 
  * This is the first beta release of protobuf v3.0.0. Not all languages 
    have reached beta stage. Languages not marked as beta are still in 
    alpha (i.e., be prepared for API breaking changes). 
 
  General 
  * Proto3 JSON is supported in several languages (fully supported in C++ 
    and Java, partially supported in Ruby/C#). The JSON spec is defined in 
    the proto3 language guide: 
 
      https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/proto3#json 
 
    We will publish a more detailed spec to define the exact behavior of 
    proto3-conformant JSON serializers and parsers. Until then, do not rely 
    on specific behaviors of the implementation if it’s not documented in 
    the above spec. More specifically, the behavior is not yet finalized for 
    the following: 
      - Parsing invalid JSON input (e.g., input with trailing commas). 
      - Non-camelCase names in JSON input. 
      - The same field appears multiple times in JSON input. 
      - JSON arrays contain “null” values. 
      - The message has unknown fields. 
 
  * Proto3 now enforces strict UTF-8 checking. Parsing will fail if a string 
    field contains non UTF-8 data. 
 
  C++ (Beta) 
  * Introduced new utility functions/classes in the google/protobuf/util 
    directory: 
      - MessageDifferencer: compare two proto messages and report their 
                            differences. 
      - JsonUtil: support converting protobuf binary format to/from JSON. 
      - TimeUtil: utility functions to work with well-known types Timestamp 
                  and Duration. 
      - FieldMaskUtil: utility functions to work with FieldMask. 
 
  * Performance optimization of arena construction and destruction. 
  * Bug fixes for arena and maps support. 
  * Changed to use cmake for Windows Visual Studio builds. 
  * Added Bazel support. 
 
  Java (Beta) 
  * Introduced a new util package that will be distributed as a separate 
    artifact in maven. It contains: 
      - JsonFormat: convert proto messages to/from JSON. 
      - TimeUtil: utility functions to work with Timestamp and Duration. 
      - FieldMaskUtil: utility functions to work with FieldMask. 
 
  * The static PARSER in each generated message is deprecated, and it will 
    be removed in a future release. A static parser() getter is generated 
    for each message type instead. 
  * Performance optimizations for String fields serialization. 
  * Performance optimizations for Lite runtime on Android: 
      - Reduced allocations 
      - Reduced method overhead after ProGuarding 
      - Reduced code size after ProGuarding 
 
  Python (Alpha) 
  * Removed legacy Python 2.5 support. 
  * Moved to a single Python 2.x/3.x-compatible codebase, instead of using 2to3. 
  * Fixed build/tests on Python 2.6, 2.7, 3.3, and 3.4. 
      - Pure-Python works on all four. 
      - Python/C++ implementation works on all but 3.4, due to changes in the 
        Python/C++ API in 3.4. 
  * Some preliminary work has been done to allow for multiple DescriptorPools 
    with Python/C++. 
 
  Ruby (Alpha) 
  * Many bugfixes: 
      - fixed parsing/serialization of bytes, sint, sfixed types 
      - other parser bugfixes 
      - fixed memory leak affecting Ruby 2.2 
 
  JavaNano (Alpha) 
  * JavaNano generated code now will be put in a nano package by default to 
    avoid conflicts with Java generated code. 
 
  Objective-C (Alpha) 
  * Added non-null markup to ObjC library. Requires SDK 8.4+ to build. 
  * Many bugfixes: 
      - Removed the class/enum filter. 
      - Renamed some internal types to avoid conflicts with the well-known types 
        protos. 
      - Added missing support for parsing repeated primitive fields in packed or 
        unpacked forms. 
      - Added *Count for repeated and map<> fields to avoid auto-create when 
        checking for them being set. 
 
  C# (Alpha) 
  * Namespace changed to Google.Protobuf (and NuGet package will be named 
    correspondingly). 
  * Target platforms now .NET 4.5 and selected portable subsets only. 
  * Removed lite runtime. 
  * Reimplementation to use mutable message types. 
  * Null references used to represent "no value" for message type fields. 
  * Proto3 semantics supported; proto2 files are prohibited for C# codegen. 
    Most proto3 features supported: 
      - JSON formatting (a.k.a. serialization to JSON), including well-known 
        types (except for Any). 
      - Wrapper types mapped to nullable value types (or string/ByteString 
        allowing nullability). JSON parsing is not supported yet. 
      - maps 
      - oneof 
      - enum unknown value preservation 
 
2015-05-25 version 3.0.0-alpha-3 (Objective-C/C#): 
  General 
  * Introduced two new language implementations (Objective-C, C#) to proto3. 
  * Explicit "optional" keyword are disallowed in proto3 syntax, as fields are 
    optional by default. 
  * Group fields are no longer supported in proto3 syntax. 
  * Changed repeated primitive fields to use packed serialization by default in 
    proto3 (implemented for C++, Java, Python in this release).  The user can 
    still disable packed serialization by setting packed to false for now. 
  * Added well-known type protos (any.proto, empty.proto, timestamp.proto, 
    duration.proto, etc.). Users can import and use these protos just like 
    regular proto files. Additional runtime support will be added for them in 
    future releases (in the form of utility helper functions, or having them 
    replaced by language specific types in generated code). 
  * Added a "reserved" keyword in both proto2 and proto3 syntax. User can use 
    this keyword to declare reserved field numbers and names to prevent them 
    from being reused by other fields in the same message. 
 
    To reserve field numbers, add a reserved declaration in your message: 
 
      message TestMessage { 
        reserved 2, 15, 9 to 11, 3; 
      } 
 
    This reserves field numbers 2, 3, 9, 10, 11 and 15. If a user uses any of 
    these as field numbers, the protocol buffer compiler will report an error. 
 
    Field names can also be reserved: 
 
      message TestMessage { 
        reserved "foo", "bar"; 
      } 
 
  * Various bug fixes since 3.0.0-alpha-2 
 
  Objective-C 
    Objective-C includes a code generator and a native objective-c runtime 
    library.  By adding “--objc_out” to protoc, the code generator will generate 
    a header(*.pbobjc.h) and an implementation file(*.pbobjc.m) for each proto 
    file. 
 
    In this first release, the generated interface provides: enums, messages, 
    field support(single, repeated, map, oneof), proto2 and proto3 syntax 
    support, parsing and serialization. It’s  compatible with ARC and non-ARC 
    usage. Besides, user can also access it via the swift bridging header. 
 
    See objectivec/README.md for details. 
 
  C# 
    * C# protobufs are based on project 
      https://github.com/jskeet/protobuf-csharp-port. The original project was 
      frozen and all the new development will happen here. 
    * Codegen plugin for C# was completely rewritten to C++ and is now an 
      integral part of protoc. 
    * Some refactorings and cleanup has been applied to the C# runtime library. 
    * Only proto2 is supported in C# at the moment, proto3 support is in 
      progress and will likely bring significant breaking changes to the API. 
 
    See csharp/README.md for details. 
 
  C++ 
    * Added runtime support for Any type. To use Any in your proto file, first 
      import the definition of Any: 
 
        // foo.proto 
        import "google/protobuf/any.proto"; 
        message Foo { 
          google.protobuf.Any any_field = 1; 
        } 
        message Bar { 
          int32 value = 1; 
        } 
 
      Then in C++ you can access the Any field using PackFrom()/UnpackTo() 
      methods: 
 
        Foo foo; 
        Bar bar = ...; 
        foo.mutable_any_field()->PackFrom(bar); 
        ... 
        if (foo.any_field().IsType<Bar>()) { 
          foo.any_field().UnpackTo(&bar); 
          ... 
        } 
    * In text format, entries of a map field will be sorted by key. 
 
  Java 
    * Continued optimizations on the lite runtime to improve performance for 
      Android. 
 
  Python 
    * Added map support. 
      - maps now have a dict-like interface (msg.map_field[key] = value) 
      - existing code that modifies maps via the repeated field interface 
        will need to be updated. 
 
  Ruby 
    * Improvements to RepeatedField's emulation of the Ruby Array API. 
    * Various speedups and internal cleanups. 
 
2015-02-26 version 3.0.0-alpha-2 (Python/Ruby/JavaNano): 
  General 
  * Introduced three new language implementations (Ruby, JavaNano, and 
    Python) to proto3. 
  * Various bug fixes since 3.0.0-alpha-1 
 
  Python: 
    Python has received several updates, most notably support for proto3 
    semantics in any .proto file that declares syntax="proto3". 
    Messages declared in proto3 files no longer represent field presence 
    for scalar fields (number, enums, booleans, or strings).  You can 
    no longer call HasField() for such fields, and they are serialized 
    based on whether they have a non-zero/empty/false value. 
 
    One other notable change is in the C++-accelerated implementation. 
    Descriptor objects (which describe the protobuf schema and allow 
    reflection over it) are no longer duplicated between the Python 
    and C++ layers.  The Python descriptors are now simple wrappers 
    around the C++ descriptors.  This change should significantly 
    reduce the memory usage of programs that use a lot of message 
    types. 
 
  Ruby: 
    We have added proto3 support for Ruby via a native C extension. 
 
    The Ruby extension itself is included in the ruby/ directory, and details on 
    building and installing the extension are in ruby/README.md. The extension 
    will also be published as a Ruby gem. Code generator support is included as 
    part of `protoc` with the `--ruby_out` flag. 
 
    The Ruby extension implements a user-friendly DSL to define message types 
    (also generated by the code generator from `.proto` files).  Once a message 
    type is defined, the user may create instances of the message that behave in 
    ways idiomatic to Ruby. For example: 
 
    - Message fields are present as ordinary Ruby properties (getter method 
      `foo` and setter method `foo=`). 
    - Repeated field elements are stored in a container that acts like a native 
      Ruby array, and map elements are stored in a container that acts like a 
      native Ruby hashmap. 
    - The usual well-known methods, such as `#to_s`, `#dup`, and the like, are 
      present. 
 
    Unlike several existing third-party Ruby extensions for protobuf, this 
    extension is built on a "strongly-typed" philosophy: message fields and 
    array/map containers will throw exceptions eagerly when values of the 
    incorrect type are inserted. 
 
    See ruby/README.md for details. 
 
  JavaNano: 
    JavaNano is a special code generator and runtime library designed especially 
    for resource-restricted systems, like Android. It is very resource-friendly 
    in both the amount of code and the runtime overhead. Here is an an overview 
    of JavaNano features compared with the official Java protobuf: 
 
    - No descriptors or message builders. 
    - All messages are mutable; fields are public Java fields. 
    - For optional fields only, encapsulation behind setter/getter/hazzer/ 
      clearer functions is opt-in, which provide proper 'has' state support. 
    - For proto2, if not opted in, has state (field presence) is not available. 
      Serialization outputs all fields not equal to their defaults. 
      The behavior is consistent with proto3 semantics. 
    - Required fields (proto2 only) are always serialized. 
    - Enum constants are integers; protection against invalid values only 
      when parsing from the wire. 
    - Enum constants can be generated into container interfaces bearing 
      the enum's name (so the referencing code is in Java style). 
    - CodedInputByteBufferNano can only take byte[] (not InputStream). 
    - Similarly CodedOutputByteBufferNano can only write to byte[]. 
    - Repeated fields are in arrays, not ArrayList or Vector. Null array 
      elements are allowed and silently ignored. 
    - Full support for serializing/deserializing repeated packed fields. 
    - Support  extensions (in proto2). 
    - Unset messages/groups are null, not an immutable empty default 
      instance. 
    - toByteArray(...) and mergeFrom(...) are now static functions of 
      MessageNano. 
    - The 'bytes' type translates to the Java type byte[]. 
 
    See javanano/README.txt for details. 
 
2014-12-01 version 3.0.0-alpha-1 (C++/Java): 
 
  General 
  * Introduced Protocol Buffers language version 3 (aka proto3). 
 
    When protobuf was initially opensourced it implemented Protocol Buffers 
    language version 2 (aka proto2), which is why the version number 
    started from v2.0.0. From v3.0.0, a new language version (proto3) is 
    introduced while the old version (proto2) will continue to be supported. 
 
    The main intent of introducing proto3 is to clean up protobuf before 
    pushing the language as the foundation of Google's new API platform. 
    In proto3, the language is simplified, both for ease of use and  to 
    make it available in a wider range of programming languages. At the 
    same time a few features are added to better support common idioms 
    found in APIs. 
 
    The following are the main new features in language version 3: 
 
      1. Removal of field presence logic for primitive value fields, removal 
         of required fields, and removal of default values. This makes proto3 
         significantly easier to implement with open struct representations, 
         as in languages like Android Java, Objective C, or Go. 
      2. Removal of unknown fields. 
      3. Removal of extensions, which are instead replaced by a new standard 
         type called Any. 
      4. Fix semantics for unknown enum values. 
      5. Addition of maps. 
      6. Addition of a small set of standard types for representation of time, 
         dynamic data, etc. 
      7. A well-defined encoding in JSON as an alternative to binary proto 
         encoding. 
 
    This release (v3.0.0-alpha-1) includes partial proto3 support for C++ and 
    Java. Items 6 (well-known types) and 7 (JSON format) in the above feature 
    list are not implemented. 
 
    A new notion "syntax" is introduced to specify whether a .proto file 
    uses proto2 or proto3: 
 
      // foo.proto 
      syntax = "proto3"; 
      message Bar {...} 
 
    If omitted, the protocol compiler will generate a warning and "proto2" will 
    be used as the default. This warning will be turned into an error in a 
    future release. 
 
    We recommend that new Protocol Buffers users use proto3. However, we do not 
    generally recommend that existing users migrate from proto2 from proto3 due 
    to API incompatibility, and we will continue to support proto2 for a long 
    time. 
 
  * Added support for map fields (implemented in C++/Java for both proto2 and 
    proto3). 
 
    Map fields can be declared using the following syntax: 
 
      message Foo { 
        map<string, string> values = 1; 
      } 
 
    Data of a map field will be stored in memory as an unordered map and it 
    can be accessed through generated accessors. 
 
  C++ 
  * Added arena allocation support (for both proto2 and proto3). 
 
    Profiling shows memory allocation and deallocation constitutes a significant 
    fraction of CPU-time spent in protobuf code and arena allocation is a 
    technique introduced to reduce this cost. With arena allocation, new 
    objects will be allocated from a large piece of preallocated memory and 
    deallocation of these objects is almost free. Early adoption shows 20% to 
    50% improvement in some Google binaries. 
 
    To enable arena support, add the following option to your .proto file: 
 
      option cc_enable_arenas = true; 
 
    Protocol compiler will generate additional code to make the generated 
    message classes work with arenas. This does not change the existing API 
    of protobuf messages and does not affect wire format. Your existing code 
    should continue to work after adding this option. In the future we will 
    make this option enabled by default. 
 
    To actually take advantage of arena allocation, you need to use the arena 
    APIs when creating messages. A quick example of using the arena API: 
 
      { 
        google::protobuf::Arena arena; 
        // Allocate a protobuf message in the arena. 
        MyMessage* message = Arena::CreateMessage<MyMessage>(&arena); 
        // All submessages will be allocated in the same arena. 
        if (!message->ParseFromString(data)) { 
          // Deal with malformed input data. 
        } 
        // Must not delete the message here. It will be deleted automatically 
        // when the arena is destroyed. 
      } 
 
    Currently arena does not work with map fields. Enabling arena in a .proto 
    file containing map fields will result in compile errors in the generated 
    code. This will be addressed in a future release. 
 
2014-10-20 version 2.6.1: 
 
  C++ 
  * Added atomicops support for Solaris. 
  * Released memory allocated by InitializeDefaultRepeatedFields() and 
    GetEmptyString(). Some memory sanitizers reported them as memory leaks. 
 
  Java 
  * Updated DynamicMessage.setField() to handle repeated enum values 
    correctly. 
  * Fixed a bug that caused NullPointerException to be thrown when 
    converting manually constructed FileDescriptorProto to 
    FileDescriptor. 
 
  Python 
  * Fixed WhichOneof() to work with de-serialized protobuf messages. 
  * Fixed a missing file problem of Python C++ implementation. 
 
2014-08-15 version 2.6.0: 
 
  General 
  * Added oneofs(unions) feature. Fields in the same oneof will share 
    memory and at most one field can be set at the same time. Use the 
    oneof keyword to define a oneof like: 
      message SampleMessage { 
        oneof test_oneof { 
          string name = 4; 
          YourMessage sub_message = 9; 
        } 
      } 
  * Files, services, enums, messages, methods and enum values can be marked 
    as deprecated now. 
  * Added Support for list values, including lists of messages, when 
    parsing text-formatted protos in C++ and Java. 
      For example:  foo: [1, 2, 3] 
 
  C++ 
  * Enhanced customization on TestFormat printing. 
  * Added SwapFields() in reflection API to swap a subset of fields. 
    Added SetAllocatedMessage() in reflection API. 
  * Repeated primitive extensions are now packable. The 
    [packed=true] option only affects serializers. Therefore, it is 
    possible to switch a repeated extension field to packed format 
    without breaking backwards-compatibility. 
  * Various speed optimizations. 
 
  Java 
  * writeTo() method in ByteString can now write a substring to an 
    output stream. Added endWith() method for ByteString. 
  * ByteString and ByteBuffer are now supported in CodedInputStream 
    and CodedOutputStream. 
  * java_generate_equals_and_hash can now be used with the LITE_RUNTIME. 
 
  Python 
  * A new C++-backed extension module (aka "cpp api v2") that replaces the 
    old ("cpp api v1") one.  Much faster than the pure Python code.  This one 
    resolves many bugs and is recommended for general use over the 
    pure Python when possible. 
  * Descriptors now have enum_types_by_name and extension_types_by_name dict 
    attributes. 
  * Support for Python 3. 
 
2013-02-27 version 2.5.0: 
 
  General 
  * New notion "import public" that allows a proto file to forward the content 
    it imports to its importers. For example, 
      // foo.proto 
      import public "bar.proto"; 
      import "baz.proto"; 
 
      // qux.proto 
      import "foo.proto"; 
      // Stuff defined in bar.proto may be used in this file, but stuff from 
      // baz.proto may NOT be used without importing it explicitly. 
    This is useful for moving proto files. To move a proto file, just leave 
    a single "import public" in the old proto file. 
  * New enum option "allow_alias" that specifies whether different symbols can 
    be assigned the same numeric value. Default value is "true". Setting it to 
    false causes the compiler to reject enum definitions where multiple symbols 
    have the same numeric value. 
    Note: We plan to flip the default value to "false" in a future release. 
    Projects using enum aliases should set the option to "true" in their .proto 
    files. 
 
  C++ 
  * New generated method set_allocated_foo(Type* foo) for message and string 
    fields. This method allows you to set the field to a pre-allocated object 
    and the containing message takes the ownership of that object. 
  * Added SetAllocatedExtension() and ReleaseExtension() to extensions API. 
  * Custom options are now formatted correctly when descriptors are printed in 
    text format. 
  * Various speed optimizations. 
 
  Java 
  * Comments in proto files are now collected and put into generated code as 
    comments for corresponding classes and data members. 
  * Added Parser to parse directly into messages without a Builder. For 
    example, 
      Foo foo = Foo.PARSER.ParseFrom(input); 
    Using Parser is ~25% faster than using Builder to parse messages. 
  * Added getters/setters to access the underlying ByteString of a string field 
    directly. 
  * ByteString now supports more operations: substring(), prepend(), and 
    append(). The implementation of ByteString uses a binary tree structure 
    to support these operations efficiently. 
  * New method findInitializationErrors() that lists all missing required 
    fields. 
  * Various code size and speed optimizations. 
 
  Python 
  * Added support for dynamic message creation. DescriptorDatabase, 
    DescriptorPool, and MessageFactory work like their C++ counterparts to 
    simplify Descriptor construction from *DescriptorProtos, and MessageFactory 
    provides a message instance from a Descriptor. 
  * Added pickle support for protobuf messages. 
  * Unknown fields are now preserved after parsing. 
  * Fixed bug where custom options were not correctly populated. Custom 
    options can be accessed now. 
  * Added EnumTypeWrapper that provides better accessibility to enum types. 
  * Added ParseMessage(descriptor, bytes) to generate a new Message instance 
    from a descriptor and a byte string. 
 
2011-05-01 version 2.4.1: 
 
  C++ 
  * Fixed the friendship problem for old compilers to make the library now gcc 3 
    compatible again. 
  * Fixed vcprojects/extract_includes.bat to extract compiler/plugin.h. 
 
  Java 
  * Removed usages of JDK 1.6 only features to make the library now JDK 1.5 
    compatible again. 
  * Fixed a bug about negative enum values. 
  * serialVersionUID is now defined in generated messages for java serializing. 
  * Fixed protoc to use java.lang.Object, which makes "Object" now a valid 
    message name again. 
 
  Python 
  * Experimental C++ implementation now requires C++ protobuf library installed. 
    See the README.txt in the python directory for details. 
 
2011-02-02 version 2.4.0: 
 
  General 
  * The RPC (cc|java|py)_generic_services default value is now false instead of 
    true. 
  * Custom options can have aggregate types. For example, 
      message MyOption { 
        optional string comment = 1; 
        optional string author = 2; 
      } 
      extend google.protobuf.FieldOptions { 
        optional MyOption myoption = 12345; 
      } 
    This option can now be set as follows: 
      message SomeType { 
        optional int32 field = 1 [(myoption) = { comment:'x' author:'y' }]; 
      } 
 
  C++ 
  * Various speed and code size optimizations. 
  * Added a release_foo() method on string and message fields. 
  * Fixed gzip_output_stream sub-stream handling. 
 
  Java 
  * Builders now maintain sub-builders for sub-messages. Use getFooBuilder() to 
    get the builder for the sub-message "foo". This allows you to repeatedly 
    modify deeply-nested sub-messages without rebuilding them. 
  * Builder.build() no longer invalidates the Builder for generated messages 
    (You may continue to modify it and then build another message). 
  * Code generator will generate efficient equals() and hashCode() 
    implementations if new option java_generate_equals_and_hash is enabled. 
    (Otherwise, reflection-based implementations are used.) 
  * Generated messages now implement Serializable. 
  * Fields with [deprecated=true] will be marked with @Deprecated in Java. 
  * Added lazy conversion of UTF-8 encoded strings to String objects to improve 
    performance. 
  * Various optimizations. 
  * Enum value can be accessed directly, instead of calling getNumber() on the 
    enum member. 
  * For each enum value, an integer constant is also generated with the suffix 
    _VALUE. 
 
  Python 
  * Added an experimental  C++ implementation for Python messages via a Python 
    extension. Implementation type is controlled by an environment variable 
    PROTOCOL_BUFFERS_PYTHON_IMPLEMENTATION (valid values: "cpp" and "python") 
    The default value is currently "python" but will be changed to "cpp" in 
    future release. 
  * Improved performance on message instantiation significantly. 
    Most of the work on message instantiation is done just once per message 
    class, instead of once per message instance. 
  * Improved performance on text message parsing. 
  * Allow add() to forward keyword arguments to the concrete class. 
      E.g. instead of 
        item = repeated_field.add() 
        item.foo = bar 
        item.baz = quux 
      You can do: 
        repeated_field.add(foo=bar, baz=quux) 
  * Added a sort() interface to the BaseContainer. 
  * Added an extend() method to repeated composite fields. 
  * Added UTF8 debug string support. 
 
2010-01-08 version 2.3.0: 
 
  General 
  * Parsers for repeated numeric fields now always accept both packed and 
    unpacked input.  The [packed=true] option only affects serializers. 
    Therefore, it is possible to switch a field to packed format without 
    breaking backwards-compatibility -- as long as all parties are using 
    protobuf 2.3.0 or above, at least. 
  * The generic RPC service code generated by the C++, Java, and Python 
    generators can be disabled via file options: 
      option cc_generic_services = false; 
      option java_generic_services = false; 
      option py_generic_services = false; 
    This allows plugins to generate alternative code, possibly specific to some 
    particular RPC implementation. 
 
  protoc 
  * Now supports a plugin system for code generators.  Plugins can generate 
    code for new languages or inject additional code into the output of other 
    code generators.  Plugins are just binaries which accept a protocol buffer 
    on stdin and write a protocol buffer to stdout, so they may be written in 
    any language.  See src/google/protobuf/compiler/plugin.proto. 
    **WARNING**:  Plugins are experimental.  The interface may change in a 
    future version. 
  * If the output location ends in .zip or .jar, protoc will write its output 
    to a zip/jar archive instead of a directory.  For example: 
      protoc --java_out=myproto_srcs.jar --python_out=myproto.zip myproto.proto 
    Currently the archive contents are not compressed, though this could change 
    in the future. 
  * inf, -inf, and nan can now be used as default values for float and double 
    fields. 
 
  C++ 
  * Various speed and code size optimizations. 
  * DynamicMessageFactory is now fully thread-safe. 
  * Message::Utf8DebugString() method is like DebugString() but avoids escaping 
    UTF-8 bytes. 
  * Compiled-in message types can now contain dynamic extensions, through use 
    of CodedInputStream::SetExtensionRegistry(). 
  * Now compiles shared libraries (DLLs) by default on Cygwin and MinGW, to 
    match other platforms.  Use --disable-shared to avoid this. 
 
  Java 
  * parseDelimitedFrom() and mergeDelimitedFrom() now detect EOF and return 
    false/null instead of throwing an exception. 
  * Fixed some initialization ordering bugs. 
  * Fixes for OpenJDK 7. 
 
  Python 
  * 10-25 times faster than 2.2.0, still pure-Python. 
  * Calling a mutating method on a sub-message always instantiates the message 
    in its parent even if the mutating method doesn't actually mutate anything 
    (e.g. parsing from an empty string). 
  * Expanded descriptors a bit. 
 
2009-08-11 version 2.2.0: 
 
  C++ 
  * Lite mode:  The "optimize_for = LITE_RUNTIME" option causes the compiler 
    to generate code which only depends libprotobuf-lite, which is much smaller 
    than libprotobuf but lacks descriptors, reflection, and some other features. 
  * Fixed bug where Message.Swap(Message) was only implemented for 
    optimize_for_speed.  Swap now properly implemented in both modes 
    (Issue 91). 
  * Added RemoveLast and SwapElements(index1, index2) to Reflection 
    interface for repeated elements. 
  * Added Swap(Message) to Reflection interface. 
  * Floating-point literals in generated code that are intended to be 
    single-precision now explicitly have 'f' suffix to avoid pedantic warnings 
    produced by some compilers. 
  * The [deprecated=true] option now causes the C++ code generator to generate 
    a GCC-style deprecation annotation (no-op on other compilers). 
  * google::protobuf::GetEnumDescriptor<SomeGeneratedEnumType>() returns the 
    EnumDescriptor for that type -- useful for templates which cannot call 
    SomeGeneratedEnumType_descriptor(). 
  * Various optimizations and obscure bug fixes. 
 
  Java 
  * Lite mode:  The "optimize_for = LITE_RUNTIME" option causes the compiler 
    to generate code which only depends libprotobuf-lite, which is much smaller 
    than libprotobuf but lacks descriptors, reflection, and some other features. 
  * Lots of style cleanups. 
 
  Python 
  * Fixed endianness bug with floats and doubles. 
  * Text format parsing support. 
  * Fix bug with parsing packed repeated fields in embedded messages. 
  * Ability to initialize fields by passing keyword args to constructor. 
  * Support iterators in extend and __setslice__ for containers. 
 
2009-05-13 version 2.1.0: 
 
  General 
  * Repeated fields of primitive types (types other that string, group, and 
    nested messages) may now use the option [packed = true] to get a more 
    efficient encoding.  In the new encoding, the entire list is written 
    as a single byte blob using the "length-delimited" wire type.  Within 
    this blob, the individual values are encoded the same way they would 
    be normally except without a tag before each value (thus, they are 
    tightly "packed"). 
  * For each field, the generated code contains an integer constant assigned 
    to the field number.  For example, the .proto file: 
      message Foo { optional int bar_baz = 123; } 
    would generate the following constants, all with the integer value 123: 
      C++:     Foo::kBarBazFieldNumber 
      Java:    Foo.BAR_BAZ_FIELD_NUMBER 
      Python:  Foo.BAR_BAZ_FIELD_NUMBER 
    Constants are also generated for extensions, with the same naming scheme. 
    These constants may be used as switch cases. 
  * Updated bundled Google Test to version 1.3.0.  Google Test is now bundled 
    in its verbatim form as a nested autoconf package, so you can drop in any 
    other version of Google Test if needed. 
  * optimize_for = SPEED is now the default, by popular demand.  Use 
    optimize_for = CODE_SIZE if code size is more important in your app. 
  * It is now an error to define a default value for a repeated field. 
    Previously, this was silently ignored (it had no effect on the generated 
    code). 
  * Fields can now be marked deprecated like: 
      optional int32 foo = 1 [deprecated = true]; 
    Currently this does not have any actual effect, but in the future the code 
    generators may generate deprecation annotations in each language. 
  * Cross-compiling should now be possible using the --with-protoc option to 
    configure.  See README.txt for more info. 
 
  protoc 
  * --error_format=msvs option causes errors to be printed in Visual Studio 
    format, which should allow them to be clicked on in the build log to go 
    directly to the error location. 
  * The type name resolver will no longer resolve type names to fields.  For 
    example, this now works: 
      message Foo {} 
      message Bar { 
        optional int32 Foo = 1; 
        optional Foo baz = 2; 
      } 
    Previously, the type of "baz" would resolve to "Bar.Foo", and you'd get 
    an error because Bar.Foo is a field, not a type.  Now the type of "baz" 
    resolves to the message type Foo.  This change is unlikely to make a 
    difference to anyone who follows the Protocol Buffers style guide. 
 
  C++ 
  * Several optimizations, including but not limited to: 
    - Serialization, especially to flat arrays, is 10%-50% faster, possibly 
      more for small objects. 
    - Several descriptor operations which previously required locking no longer 
      do. 
    - Descriptors are now constructed lazily on first use, rather than at 
      process startup time.  This should save memory in programs which do not 
      use descriptors or reflection. 
    - UnknownFieldSet completely redesigned to be more efficient (especially in 
      terms of memory usage). 
    - Various optimizations to reduce code size (though the serialization speed 
      optimizations increased code size). 
  * Message interface has method ParseFromBoundedZeroCopyStream() which parses 
    a limited number of bytes from an input stream rather than parsing until 
    EOF. 
  * GzipInputStream and GzipOutputStream support reading/writing gzip- or 
    zlib-compressed streams if zlib is available. 
    (google/protobuf/io/gzip_stream.h) 
  * DescriptorPool::FindAllExtensions() and corresponding 
    DescriptorDatabase::FindAllExtensions() can be used to enumerate all 
    extensions of a given type. 
  * For each enum type Foo, protoc will generate functions: 
      const string& Foo_Name(Foo value); 
      bool Foo_Parse(const string& name, Foo* result); 
    The former returns the name of the enum constant corresponding to the given 
    value while the latter finds the value corresponding to a name. 
  * RepeatedField and RepeatedPtrField now have back-insertion iterators. 
  * String fields now have setters that take a char* and a size, in addition 
    to the existing ones that took char* or const string&. 
  * DescriptorPool::AllowUnknownDependencies() may be used to tell 
    DescriptorPool to create placeholder descriptors for unknown entities 
    referenced in a FileDescriptorProto.  This can allow you to parse a .proto 
    file without having access to other .proto files that it imports, for 
    example. 
  * Updated gtest to latest version.  The gtest package is now included as a 
    nested autoconf package, so it should be able to drop new versions into the 
    "gtest" subdirectory without modification. 
 
  Java 
  * Fixed bug where Message.mergeFrom(Message) failed to merge extensions. 
  * Message interface has new method toBuilder() which is equivalent to 
    newBuilderForType().mergeFrom(this). 
  * All enums now implement the ProtocolMessageEnum interface. 
  * Setting a field to null now throws NullPointerException. 
  * Fixed tendency for TextFormat's parsing to overflow the stack when 
    parsing large string values.  The underlying problem is with Java's 
    regex implementation (which unfortunately uses recursive backtracking 
    rather than building an NFA).  Worked around by making use of possessive 
    quantifiers. 
  * Generated service classes now also generate pure interfaces.  For a service 
    Foo, Foo.Interface is a pure interface containing all of the service's 
    defined methods.  Foo.newReflectiveService() can be called to wrap an 
    instance of this interface in a class that implements the generic 
    RpcService interface, which provides reflection support that is usually 
    needed by RPC server implementations. 
  * RPC interfaces now support blocking operation in addition to non-blocking. 
    The protocol compiler generates separate blocking and non-blocking stubs 
    which operate against separate blocking and non-blocking RPC interfaces. 
    RPC implementations will have to implement the new interfaces in order to 
    support blocking mode. 
  * New I/O methods parseDelimitedFrom(), mergeDelimitedFrom(), and 
    writeDelimitedTo() read and write "delimited" messages from/to a stream, 
    meaning that the message size precedes the data.  This way, you can write 
    multiple messages to a stream without having to worry about delimiting 
    them yourself. 
  * Throw a more descriptive exception when build() is double-called. 
  * Add a method to query whether CodedInputStream is at the end of the input 
    stream. 
  * Add a method to reset a CodedInputStream's size counter; useful when 
    reading many messages with the same stream. 
  * equals() and hashCode() now account for unknown fields. 
 
  Python 
  * Added slicing support for repeated scalar fields. Added slice retrieval and 
    removal of repeated composite fields. 
  * Updated RPC interfaces to allow for blocking operation.  A client may 
    now pass None for a callback when making an RPC, in which case the 
    call will block until the response is received, and the response 
    object will be returned directly to the caller.  This interface change 
    cannot be used in practice until RPC implementations are updated to 
    implement it. 
  * Changes to input_stream.py should make protobuf compatible with appengine. 
 
2008-11-25 version 2.0.3: 
 
  protoc 
  * Enum values may now have custom options, using syntax similar to field 
    options. 
  * Fixed bug where .proto files which use custom options but don't actually 
    define them (i.e. they import another .proto file defining the options) 
    had to explicitly import descriptor.proto. 
  * Adjacent string literals in .proto files will now be concatenated, like in 
    C. 
  * If an input file is a Windows absolute path (e.g. "C:\foo\bar.proto") and 
    the import path only contains "." (or contains "." but does not contain 
    the file), protoc incorrectly thought that the file was under ".", because 
    it thought that the path was relative (since it didn't start with a slash). 
    This has been fixed. 
 
  C++ 
  * Generated message classes now have a Swap() method which efficiently swaps 
    the contents of two objects. 
  * All message classes now have a SpaceUsed() method which returns an estimate 
    of the number of bytes of allocated memory currently owned by the object. 
    This is particularly useful when you are reusing a single message object 
    to improve performance but want to make sure it doesn't bloat up too large. 
  * New method Message::SerializeAsString() returns a string containing the 
    serialized data.  May be more convenient than calling 
    SerializeToString(string*). 
  * In debug mode, log error messages when string-type fields are found to 
    contain bytes that are not valid UTF-8. 
  * Fixed bug where a message with multiple extension ranges couldn't parse 
    extensions. 
  * Fixed bug where MergeFrom(const Message&) didn't do anything if invoked on 
    a message that contained no fields (but possibly contained extensions). 
  * Fixed ShortDebugString() to not be O(n^2).  Durr. 
  * Fixed crash in TextFormat parsing if the first token in the input caused a 
    tokenization error. 
  * Fixed obscure bugs in zero_copy_stream_impl.cc. 
  * Added support for HP C++ on Tru64. 
  * Only build tests on "make check", not "make". 
  * Fixed alignment issue that caused crashes when using DynamicMessage on 
    64-bit Sparc machines. 
  * Simplify template usage to work with MSVC 2003. 
  * Work around GCC 4.3.x x86_64 compiler bug that caused crashes on startup. 
    (This affected Fedora 9 in particular.) 
  * Now works on "Solaris 10 using recent Sun Studio". 
 
  Java 
  * New overload of mergeFrom() which parses a slice of a byte array instead 
    of the whole thing. 
  * New method ByteString.asReadOnlyByteBuffer() does what it sounds like. 
  * Improved performance of isInitialized() when optimizing for code size. 
 
  Python 
  * Corrected ListFields() signature in Message base class to match what 
    subclasses actually implement. 
  * Some minor refactoring. 
  * Don't pass self as first argument to superclass constructor (no longer 
    allowed in Python 2.6). 
 
2008-09-29 version 2.0.2: 
 
  General 
  * License changed from Apache 2.0 to 3-Clause BSD. 
  * It is now possible to define custom "options", which are basically 
    annotations which may be placed on definitions in a .proto file. 
    For example, you might define a field option called "foo" like so: 
      import "google/protobuf/descriptor.proto" 
      extend google.protobuf.FieldOptions { 
        optional string foo = 12345; 
      } 
    Then you annotate a field using the "foo" option: 
      message MyMessage { 
        optional int32 some_field = 1 [(foo) = "bar"] 
      } 
    The value of this option is then visible via the message's 
    Descriptor: 
      const FieldDescriptor* field = 
        MyMessage::descriptor()->FindFieldByName("some_field"); 
      assert(field->options().GetExtension(foo) == "bar"); 
    This feature has been implemented and tested in C++ and Java. 
    Other languages may or may not need to do extra work to support 
    custom options, depending on how they construct descriptors. 
 
  C++ 
  * Fixed some GCC warnings that only occur when using -pedantic. 
  * Improved static initialization code, making ordering more 
    predictable among other things. 
  * TextFormat will no longer accept messages which contain multiple 
    instances of a singular field.  Previously, the latter instance 
    would overwrite the former. 
  * Now works on systems that don't have hash_map. 
 
  Java 
  * Print @Override annotation in generated code where appropriate. 
 
  Python 
  * Strings now use the "unicode" type rather than the "str" type. 
    String fields may still be assigned ASCII "str" values; they will 
    automatically be converted. 
  * Adding a property to an object representing a repeated field now 
    raises an exception.  For example: 
      # No longer works (and never should have). 
      message.some_repeated_field.foo = 1 
 
  Windows 
  * We now build static libraries rather than DLLs by default on MSVC. 
    See vsprojects/readme.txt for more information. 
 
2008-08-15 version 2.0.1: 
 
  protoc 
  * New flags --encode and --decode can be used to convert between protobuf text 
    format and binary format from the command-line. 
  * New flag --descriptor_set_out can be used to write FileDescriptorProtos for 
    all parsed files directly into a single output file.  This is particularly 
    useful if you wish to parse .proto files from programs written in languages 
    other than C++: just run protoc as a background process and have it output 
    a FileDescriptorList, then parse that natively. 
  * Improved error message when an enum value's name conflicts with another 
    symbol defined in the enum type's scope, e.g. if two enum types declared 
    in the same scope have values with the same name.  This is disallowed for 
    compatibility with C++, but this wasn't clear from the error. 
  * Fixed absolute output paths on Windows. 
  * Allow trailing slashes in --proto_path mappings. 
 
  C++ 
  * Reflection objects are now per-class rather than per-instance.  To make this 
    possible, the Reflection interface had to be changed such that all methods 
    take the Message instance as a parameter.  This change improves performance 
    significantly in memory-bandwidth-limited use cases, since it makes the 
    message objects smaller.  Note that source-incompatible interface changes 
    like this will not be made again after the library leaves beta. 
  * Heuristically detect sub-messages when printing unknown fields. 
  * Fix static initialization ordering bug that caused crashes at startup when 
    compiling on Mac with static linking. 
  * Fixed TokenizerTest when compiling with -DNDEBUG on Linux. 
  * Fixed incorrect definition of kint32min. 
  * Fix bytes type setter to work with byte sequences with embedded NULLs. 
  * Other irrelevant tweaks. 
 
  Java 
  * Fixed UnknownFieldSet's parsing of varints larger than 32 bits. 
  * Fixed TextFormat's parsing of "inf" and "nan". 
  * Fixed TextFormat's parsing of comments. 
  * Added info to Java POM that will be required when we upload the 
    package to a Maven repo. 
 
  Python 
  * MergeFrom(message) and CopyFrom(message) are now implemented. 
  * SerializeToString() raises an exception if the message is missing required 
    fields. 
  * Code organization improvements. 
  * Fixed doc comments for RpcController and RpcChannel, which had somehow been 
    swapped. 
  * Fixed text_format_test on Windows where floating-point exponents sometimes 
    contain extra zeros. 
  * Fix Python service CallMethod() implementation. 
 
  Other 
  * Improved readmes. 
  * VIM syntax highlighting improvements. 
 
2008-07-07 version 2.0.0: 
 
  * First public release.