Do we need opentelemetry-proto as separate crate?

[lalitb]

Just curious, do we need opentelemetry-proto, or can it can be integrated within opentelemetry-otlp. I am not sure if this crate would ever be used separately from opentelemetry-otlp. I remember @cijothomas also raised this earlier.

[cijothomas]

I don't think it is needed. I think of it as an internal dependency of the otlp crate only.

[TommyCpp]

Original issue #627

This was introduced to reduce duplication between otlp and zpage(which is gone by now IIRC). There were also interest in using them in other crates. Also we use them in other exporters supporting OTLP protocol like ETW exporter right?

[lalitb]

Oh yes, thanks for sharing, so any exporter that needs OTLP/protobuf format would need it.