There have been several discussions about improving the comms protocol between PC and Reprap. AFAIK, the "standard" protocol is still the GCode protocol described on the wiki [
reprap.org], and the only host/firmware to have implemented a new protocol is the Repetier firmware.
It seems that the current protocol is "good enough", and there is insufficient momentum to change it.
However, I'd quite like a protocol that supports "dual-band" or at least buffer/unbuffered commands, I was wondering if any of the proposals got to the stage of being ready for implementation.