Relationship to postcard
Poststation is part of the greater postcard
family, and builds on top of it. Namely:
postcard
is the ENCODING format
postcard
defines how we turn data types into bytes and back again. You can use postcard
anywhere you want
to serialize/deserialize data. It serves as the "base layer" of the stack.
postcard
is an Open Source library (MIT and Apache 2.0 licensed), and has a stable and public specification.
postcard-rpc
is the WIRE PROTOCOL
postcard-rpc
defines how two devices communicate with each other. You can use postcard-rpc
anywhere you
want two devices to communicate in a client/server role. postcard-rpc
requires the use of postcard
as the
encoding format.
postcard-rpc
is an Open Source library (MIT and Apache 2.0 licensed), and will have a stable and public
specification in the near future (planned for 2025).
Poststation is a DEVELOPER TOOL
Poststation manages connections to multiple devices, historical data, and connectors to other APIs and services.
Poststation uses postcard
as the encoding format, and postcard-rpc
as the wire protocol.
Poststation is a paid, closed source tool. It aims to be a handy toolkit, to save developer time from building
integrations and tooling on top of postcard
or postcard-rpc
from scratch.