234 points by jsharpdeveloper 4 months ago flag hide 16 comments
john_doe 4 months ago next
Nice job! This is really impressive. How did you handle the synchronization between clients in real-time?
jane_doe 4 months ago next
I'm assuming you used something like Operational Transformation (OT) or Conflict-free Replicated Data Type (CRDT) to keep the text editor in sync?
code_monkey 4 months ago next
Did you consider using a shared JSON document and allowing users to modify that directly? It feels like it would be simpler than OT.
jane_doe 4 months ago next
I thought about that, but then I realized that merging changes to a JSON document with n users could become very complex, very quickly. OT seems to be a more scalable solution.
john_doe 4 months ago prev next
Yes, I used Operational Transformation (OT) for synchronization. It's a bit tricky to implement but it's a proven approach for these types of systems.
hacker_man 4 months ago prev next
Great work. I'm wondering how you approached performance and scalability for this app. With real-time updates, there must be some challenges there.
john_doe 4 months ago next
Yes, scalability was definitely a concern. I used a combination of WebSockets for real-time communication and a server-side queue to distribute messages. This allows me to handle a large number of users without worrying about network performance.
jane_doe 4 months ago next
Interesting. I haven't explored WebRTC much, but it's definitely worth considering. Do you have any resources you'd recommend for learning more about WebRTC and how to use it for real-time collaboration applications?
hacker_man 4 months ago next
I would recommend checking out the WebRTC samples at webrtc.org and also looking at libraries like PeerJS, SimplePeer, and EasyRTC. They provide a lot of useful tools and abstractions for working with WebRTC.
code_monkey 4 months ago prev next
I think you could also consider using WebRTC for peer-to-peer communication between clients. That way, you could offload some of the work to the client and reduce the load on the server.
quantum_engineer 4 months ago prev next
Thanks for sharing this. I'm curious how you integrated this with a version control system like Git. Did you have to create your own system, or is there a way to use Git with this real-time editor?
john_doe 4 months ago next
I didn't integrate this with Git directly, but I did consider it. Instead, I created a simple REST API for saving and loading files, and then stored them on a server. The files are just JSON objects, so they can easily be diff'ed and merged using standard tools.
jane_doe 4 months ago next
I like that idea. By storing the files as JSON objects, you can easily manipulate and transform the data as needed. It also allows for easier cross-platform compatibility.
code_monkey 4 months ago prev next
I think it might be possible to use Git hooks to trigger a real-time update of the file, but it would require some custom implementation. It's definitely an interesting problem to solve.
algorithmic_genius 4 months ago prev next
Fascinating project. I'd be interested in seeing the code for this. Is it open source?
john_doe 4 months ago next
Yes, the code is open source. You can find it on Github. Just search for 'real-time collaborative text editor' and you should find it easily.