ProtocolBuffers and existing classes

[Marco@worldcorp]

Hello
i was wondering if protobuffer supports having an already existing
class embedded in the message.
What i mean: from example i have seen, use writes a .proto buffer and
protobuffer generates all related java classes.

However, i have already existing classe which i'd like to embed in
a .proto file.

Is that supported?

I guess if protobuffer generates interfaces, i can get away with it
and 'rewrite' my code .. but if it has the functionality to use
existing classes, that would be appreciated

any constraints on existing classes? i guess they all have to
implement Serializable

thanks and regarsd
marco

[Jason Hsueh]

No, you cannot refer to arbitrary classes. Doing so would be difficult to support across languages, and significantly complicates features like reflection.

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[David Yu]

Have you looked at http://code.google.com/p/protostuff?

It allows you to skip all the code generation and simply use your existing classes (support for cyclic references too)

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