Jun 14, 2013 - Blink specifications updated

Two new types: binary and fixed have been added. Both types are intended for representing sequences of bytes that do not fit in any of the other available types. The binary type has variable length values and the fixed type has fixed length values.

The content type property on strings has been removed and is replaced by a numerical property that specifies a max size on string and binary types, and a fixed size on the fixed type.

All the specifications have been updated accordingly to cover these two new types.

In the Tag, XML and JSON formats, binary and fixed values can now be expressed as sequences of pairs of hexadecimal digits.

A new document specifying a standard type library has been added. The type library defines types derived from more primitive Blink types. A schema version of the standard type library is also available here.

May 26, 2013 - Java Blink implementation released

jblink, a free java blink implementation created by Pantor Engineering is available for download at GitHub.

Feb 18, 2013 - Updated Core Native and Tag specifications

The following list summarizes the changes in the specifications:

• Core: Prohibited recursive references over optional fields of static group type.
• Native: Inline string annotation renamed to blink:inlineSize.
• Native: Expanded the constraint on the message size to include the type identifier and the extension offset.
• Native: Added constraint on extension offsets to be within the data area.

Feb 11, 2013 - Added native binary support to the Blink tool

The blink tool can now translate between the compact and native binary formats. It can also dump the native binary format into an annotated hex format.

Feb 5, 2013 - Editoral update of the Blink specification

The example code in appendix D is now a bit more instructive.

Jan 29, 2013 - New Blink Native Binary format released

This release adds a second binary format, called the Blink Native binary format. The original Blink format is now called Blink Compact binary format. The Compact format is still documented in the Blink core specification, while the Native format is documented in a new specification.

The Native format is optimized for encoding and decoding speed rather than message size.

The following list summarizes the changes in the core specification and the compact binary format. There has been a couple of editorial changes too.

• The continuation-bit coding of integers has been replaced by a hybrid bit and byte prefix coding. In the new coding, values up to 14 bits are encoded with a bit prefix, and values with more than 14 bits are encoded with a byte prefix.
• The timeOfDay type has been replaced by two types: timeOfDayMilli and timeOfDayNano for millisecond and nanosecond precision respectively. The underlying types are u32 and u64 and the value range is constrained to 24 hours.
• The f64 type now uses the variable length coding for consistency. The IEEE 754 bit pattern is encoded as an u64.
• The exponent type of decimals is now i8 (was i32 before).

Jan 1, 2013 - Blink XML and JSON specifications released

Blink XML and JSON text formats are now available in addition to the Blink binary and Blink tagged text formats.

Dec 27, 2012 - Blink schema tools released

A binary release of a Blink schema tool is now available for download. The tool can be used in the Linux, Solaris and Windows environments.

Dec 5, 2012 - Blink schema parser in Lua released

Dec 3, 2012 - Emacs Blink mode released

An emacs mode for Blink is now available for download.

Nov 30, 2012 - Blink Beta 1 Specification released

The Beta1 release includes the launch of the blinkprotcol.org website with an introduction to Blink and beta versions of the Blink core specifications.