* In a previous update in 2021 many copyright ranges were truncated
accidentally, and some files have been copy-pasted with wrong years. These
dates have been fixed based on git history and original copyright messages.
* This will be optional in many cases but for some situations might be required
when type information is not implicitly available in the descriptor store.
Generally it should always be available unless the descriptor store is being
viewed 'blank' purely from its contents with no other context.
baldurk