[FM Discuss] live collaborative editing

[Douglas Bagnall]

Joshua Facemyer wrote:

> What if we had a live collaborative editing system?  I mean, two people
> or more could theoretically work on the same document, right?  I know
> what you're thinking: too much work, nothing available like that to
> borrow from, too many problems, etc.
> 
> It would be much like Inkscape's whiteboard
> tool (which is currently borked) - only for text.  


It would be exactly like Sugar's Write activity, where several remote
authors can work on the same document.  You see cursors flitting about
your page, adding and removing words.

But that is not web based, using instead Telepathy instead of http and
Abiword instead of the browser, and there is nothing tangible we could
borrow from it.  A web version would be very much harder and less well
formed.  Example issues: the browser and OS may not like the idea of
multiple cursors in one document; http, the DOM, and browser editors are
not really suited for rapid continuous update; different browsers create
different code from the same input.  So, yeah, not something to work on yet.


Douglas