Cross language C# and Java development

Question

Can you give me some advice on how to best ensure that two applications (one in C#, the other in Java) will be compatible and efficient in exchanging data? Are there any gotchas that you have encountered?

The scenario is point to point, one host is a service provider and the other is a service consumer.

Answer 1

Have a look at protobuf data interchange format. A .NET implementation is also available.

Answer 2

JSON for descriptive data, and XML for general data types. If that is not efficient enough for you, you need to roll your own codecs to handle the byte ordering difference between C# and Java.