Ebenezer Enterprises

We host a code generator called the C++ Middleware Writer (CMW). The CMW writes portable, binary serialization code. A compiler with C++ 2020 support is needed to use the CMW.

    "All things (e.g. A camel's journey through 
     A needle's eye) are possible it's true. 
     But picture how the camel feels, squeezed out
     In one long bloody thread from tail to snout."   C.S. Lewis

We started developing the CMW in 1999 and it's been available since 2002. We also work in consulting and have experience with UDP, SCTP, TCP, Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, Boost and other development tools. Ideally, we hope to combine consulting with the services we offer, and will spend 16 hours/week for six months on a project that uses the C++ Middleware Writer.

Also we'll pay $5,000 and give a $2,000 investment in the company to someone who helps us find someone interested in this. We'll pay the $5,000 after working for four months on the project. Ebenezer Enterprises works to reward investments to 3 times the original amount. So the investment would result in between 0 and $6,000, depending on how things go for the company.

The CMW is the back tier of a 3-tier system:

CMW (server) (back tier)
cmwA (UDP server) (middle tier) (cmwA is short for CMW Ambassador)
genz (ephemeral) (front tier)

The middle and front tiers are needed in order to use the CMW.

Links to some files in the repo:
cmwA.mdl -- A Middle file that specifies what to generate.
cmwA.mdl.hh -- CMW output based on cmwA.mdl.

Free SaaS

The CMW is free to use -- no trial periods or tiered plans! The first 128 account numbers can be marshalled in one byte. Larger account numbers require 2, 3, 4, or 5 bytes. So there's an advantage to signing up sooner than later. To get an account send an email to support@webEbenezer.net with "Account" as the subject, and include your ambassador ID.

Supported Types

Fundamental Types

bool, float, double, int8_t, int16_t, int32_t, int64_t, uint8_t, uint16_t, uint32_t, uint64_t

Standard Library Types

array, complex, deque, hive, list, (multi)map, (multi)set, span, string, string_view,
unique_ptr, unordered_(multi)map, unordered_(multi)set, variant, vector

Boost Types

base_collection
multi_index_container
small_vector

Other Types

MarshallingInt -- a variable-length integer that is marshalled as one to five bytes depending on its value

User Defined Types

We don't support nested classes

We will consider supporting additional types if something you need isn't listed here.

Supported Platforms

The software has been tested on Linux, FreeBSD, Windows and Mac OS.

Recent Developments

July 2022

Finished porting the back tier from FreeBSD to Linux in order to use io_uring.

January 2022

Support for std::variant is now available

July 2021

WSAStartup stinks. The front tier of the CMW is 27 lines long. It could be 26 lines if Microsoft would get rid of this API. Things like this are why the middle tier doesn't run on Windows.

June 2021

Got continuous integration working on the the repo.

October 2019

There have been a lot of changes that can be viewed in the repo, including using SCTP rather than TCP between the back and middle tiers.

August 2017

I used this benchmark to test the CMW against other libraries. The CMW produced a smaller serialized size than Capnproto or Cereal:


Capnproto 17,768
Cereal       17,416
CMW         16,712

The CMW-based approach was also faster than Cereal in this benchmark.

April 2017

Version 1.14 is here. This version adds support for plf::colony, std::string_view and boost::container::small_vector.

Why use a 3-tier architecture?

Originally we used a 2-tier system. We switched to a 3-tier architecture for performance, administrative and security reasons. In the 2-tier architecture, the front tier had to establish a connection to the back tier each time it ran. In the 3-tier architecture, the middle tier maintains a connection with the CMW and uses it to serve front tier instances.

In the 2-tier architecture, every user had to be given permission to get through your firewall in order to communicate with the CMW. With the 3-tier architecture, requests are mediated by the cmwA so only one machine needs attention from a network administrator.

support@webEbenezer.net

Please send your questions and feedback to us.

Links