From ae567e579897b87c63e297472f207cec05939594 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: charles <charles@tipsy.codes>
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 2026 22:01:41 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] Add README

---
 .gitignore  |  1 +
 Cargo.toml  |  6 ++++++
 README.md   | 52 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 src/main.rs |  3 +++
 4 files changed, 62 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 .gitignore
 create mode 100644 Cargo.toml
 create mode 100644 README.md
 create mode 100644 src/main.rs

diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ea8c4bf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+/target
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3a4d09e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+[package]
+name = "roto"
+version = "0.1.0"
+edition = "2024"
+
+[dependencies]
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a08dc6e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+# roto
+
+Rust protos without the P.
+
+The codegen is different; we don't create data structures.
+We mark what where each field is, and only read it when asked.
+The binary blob is never decompressed by the library; it is your
+job to figure out how to store the data if you need to access it
+more than once.
+
+And building protos? You use a builder. We don't make some fancy
+structure and give you a marshal function, nah. You give us a blob
+to write data into, and we write what you tell us, no questions asked.
+
+### Sample usage
+
+```rust
+/*
+message Hello {
+    string hello_world = 1;
+    message InnerWorld {
+        string thought = 1;
+    }
+    InnerWorld inner_world = 2;
+}
+ */
+
+fn parse_proto(data: &[u8]) -> Result<String> {
+    // Scans the data, marks where each flag is as an offset
+    // into the proto.
+    let accessor = HelloProto::new(accessor)?;
+    // Load the hello world string; returns bytes, not
+    // a Rust string.
+    let hello_world = accessor.hello_world()?;
+    // Inspect a nested message; accessing inner_world scans it
+    // for flag locations and returns a similiar access struct
+    let inner_world = accessor.inner_world()?.thought()?;
+
+    format!("{} is about {}", hello_world, inner_world)
+} 
+```
+
+### High level design
+
+The runtime library offers an iterator over the fields in a message, using the protobuf wire format provide
+objects of flag and type. Codegen creates a 'wrapper' that iterates over the message, and records the
+byte offset of each element. Helper methods in the wrapper give the user access to the name fields,
+casted to the appropriate data type.
+
+### Literature
+
+https://protobuf.dev/programming-guides/encoding/
diff --git a/src/main.rs b/src/main.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e7a11a9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+fn main() {
+    println!("Hello, world!");
+}