Centralized Command-Sourced Document Design Avoids CRDTs, Trading Convergence for Strict Ordering
A developer write-up argues for a centralized, command-sourced collaborative document system that drops conflict-free replicated data types in favor of a single authority enforcing transactional ordering. It warns that treating multiple windows of one document as independent file writers causes OS file-lock contention, write failures, and journal corruption. The recommended fix is a master-sidecar design where one local authority process owns the journal and other windows connect as zero-write IPC clients. To avoid slow late-joiner synchronization from replaying an unbounded journal, the author proposes periodic snapshot checkpoints that truncate the log. The article also cautions that naive client-side rebase rules break down for hierarchical document structures.
This is an AI-generated summary. ShortSingh links to the original source for the complete article.
Discussion (0)
Log in to join the discussion and vote.
Log in