What is Etch?

Etch is a cross-platform, language- and transport-independent framework for building and consuming network services. The Etch toolset includes a network service description language, a compiler, and binding libraries for a variety of programming languages. Etch is also transport-independent, allowing for a variety of different transports to used based on need and circumstance. The goal of Etch is to make it simple to define small, focused services that can be easily accessed, combined, and deployed in a similar manner. With Etch, service development and consumption becomes no more difficult than library development and consumption.

Etch was started because we wanted to have a way to write a concise, formal description of the message exchange between a client and a server, with that message exchange supporting a hefty set of requirements:

• support one-way and two-way, real-time communication
• high performance and scalability
• support clients and servers written in different languages
• support clients/servers running in a wide range of contexts (such as thin web client, embedded device, PC application, or server)
• support anyone adding new language bindings and new transports
• be fast and small, while still being flexible enough to satisfy requirements
• finally, it must be easy to use for developers both implementing and/or consuming the service.

Project Status

We are in the process of transitioning project hosting from Cisco's Developer Portal to Apache.

The compiler and language bindings for Java and C# are working and fully functional. Etch is considered at 1.0 and ready for production use.

We are continually developing regression tests, documentation around Etch's pluggable architecture.

Language bindings for Javascript, Python, and C are in development.