Chapter 1. Introduction

This book aims to provide a practical approach to learning and using gRPC. It attempts to catalog and teach not only the basics of gRPC, which you could also find in countless blog posts and the gRPC home page itself, but also to show the more interesting (perhaps less well-documented) aspects of gRPC. The book even demonstrates some of the gRPC pitfalls, and what you need to know to overcome them.

The first few chapters in this book introduce gRPC, describing what it is and how it compares and contrasts to other technologies in the same space. We’ll also dive into how to actually use and apply it. Next, the book will venture into more advanced techniques. These advanced chapters will arm you with the tools to use gRPC to the fullest, so you can truly harness its features for solving problems and building software systems. There are also more practical concerns covered, like best practices for evolving your RPC interfaces and schemas. The later chapters in the book will detour into related technologies, some that complement gRPC in production environments and some that aid developers in building and testing applications that use gRPC.