Re: A new collaborative editing package (maybe tangent)

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

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  > I don’t think we are installing anything into Emacs. Collab-mode,
  > if ever completes, will be like any other Emacs package.

They are all installed in Emacs.  If we add a package to Emacs that
choose method A instead of method B, that choice has inertia.  In
principle, we could later decide method B is better and switch to it.
But it can be difficult to switch to mainly using method B, and even
harder to switch entirely.  We would tend to continue in path A
by inertia.

I don't know anythng about these two methods for collaborative
editing, so I have no preference.  I do know that whatever we do about
this will create inertia for the future.  Rather than letting
historical chance decide which course we take, let's make a thoughtful
decision.

Would it make sense for collab-mode to support both methods?  Are the
differences just matters of detail, or are the concepts
incommensurable?

  > Also, since what ever protocol collab-mode uses will be limited to
  > collab-mode itself,

Why so?  There are other collaborative editing systems, right?  Why
can't it be compatible with those that use the same method - or at
least one of them (if they are incompatible with each other)?




-- 
Dr Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org)
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)