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The point about robust collaborative editing as an API is interesting. The HN crowd generally prefers native apps and gets tired of the electron parade, but for

The point about robust collaborative editing as an API is interesting. The HN crowd generally prefers native apps and gets tired of the electron parade, but for major business software it’s increasingly table stakes that another person can see what you’re working on, live, by clicking a link. Apple does have relatively good live collaboration in its iWork apps. Perhaps there’s a future API there?

rmorey 6y ago
> Apple does have relatively good live collaboration in its iWork apps Does it? As much as i like the iWork apps, my experience (and impression of the general sentiment) has shown that Google Docs et al continues to blow the pants off iWork in that regard
- yalogin 6y ago
  Can you give me some examples where Apple's collaboration SW falls short?
- burlesona 6y ago
  I did say "relatively good" :) I would agree that collaboration is a little smoother in G Suite, however in my experience this is mostly about ease of sharing. Once you've gotten another Apple user to understand that they can "receive a shared document from you" and work on it, then usually collaboration itself is smooth.
- chrisfinazzo 6y ago
  The collaborative editing (which I first recall seeing in Google Wave) was essentially carried into Google Docs. N.B, "SubEthaEdit had this for years!" - I know. As a whole, it could be argued that where Wave failed, Slack - and predecessors like Basecamp - succeeded. iWork has always seemed like it has a different user in mind with its collaborative features and never really had much traction in the market, which is already served by offerings whose entire reason for being is collaboration, not just as a general productivity suite.
  - reaperducer 6y ago
    N.B, "SubEthaEdit had this for years!" - I know. FWIW, I first saw collaborative editing over a network done on an Amiga. So I guess this has been a thing for "decades."
    - chrisfinazzo 6y ago
      If I'm reading the specs correctly, there was 10 Mb Ethernet capability on the Amiga...in 1985. Mind blown. (I was born in '86, albeit late in the year, so I find this especially hilarious.)
jinjin2 6y ago
I would have wished that Apple had been the ones acquiring Realm. They really had the best API for building apps with live collaboration I have ever experienced. Instead they went to MongoDB, so who knows how that will end?
- joshspankit 6y ago
  I always liked Realm but have not heard anything about them lately. Where did they go, and is the current work as powerful as the early stuff?
  - jamil7 6y ago
    I’m not really a fan of MongoDB but the handling of Realm so far seems well done. I migrated an app to their new sync service and everything worked fine. They also offer a fairly generous free plan and are open sourcing the sync engine.
  - dep_b 6y ago
    I tried to use it recently and it was an endless nightmare of suck. But perhaps I'm just allergic for any type of framework that tries to dictate my app structure and threading strategy.
- alexashka 6y ago
  Realm was a dead end - it was based on a custom database, which was a mistake. Them going to Mongo is actually the best possible outcome - by replacing their dead end custom database with MongoDB, they make MongoDB into a more compelling product, making document-based databases more batteries-included than ever before, which is excellent news.
onion2k 6y ago
The HN crowd generally prefers native apps and gets tired of the electron parade... There's no significant preference for native; it's just that we won't tolerate bad apps. I'd guess that VSCode is the most popular editor among users here by a long way, and that Google Docs has far more users than MS Word. HN readers don't pick native apps when there's a good Electron or web-based alternative.
- vulcan01 6y ago
  To add on, the reason why it might seem that > the HN crowd generally prefers native apps is because it is hard to write a good Electron / web app that is actually performant + easy to use. Which is why many people here are wary of new Electron apps.
- alwillis 6y ago
  >I'd guess that VSCode is the most popular editor among users here by a long way I don't know about that. When ever there's an article about Vim, it gets lots and lots of useful, insightful comments. If you search for Vim on HN, you'll see the catalog of Vim posts and threads. I haven't seen the same thing regarding VS Code.

rmorey 6y ago

> Apple does have relatively good live collaboration in its iWork apps Does it? As much as i like the iWork apps, my experience (and impression of the general sentiment) has shown that Google Docs et al continues to blow the pants off iWork in that regard

yalogin 6y ago
Can you give me some examples where Apple's collaboration SW falls short?
burlesona 6y ago
I did say "relatively good" :) I would agree that collaboration is a little smoother in G Suite, however in my experience this is mostly about ease of sharing. Once you've gotten another Apple user to understand that they can "receive a shared document from you" and work on it, then usually collaboration itself is smooth.
chrisfinazzo 6y ago
The collaborative editing (which I first recall seeing in Google Wave) was essentially carried into Google Docs. N.B, "SubEthaEdit had this for years!" - I know. As a whole, it could be argued that where Wave failed, Slack - and predecessors like Basecamp - succeeded. iWork has always seemed like it has a different user in mind with its collaborative features and never really had much traction in the market, which is already served by offerings whose entire reason for being is collaboration, not just as a general productivity suite.
- reaperducer 6y ago
  N.B, "SubEthaEdit had this for years!" - I know. FWIW, I first saw collaborative editing over a network done on an Amiga. So I guess this has been a thing for "decades."
  - chrisfinazzo 6y ago
    If I'm reading the specs correctly, there was 10 Mb Ethernet capability on the Amiga...in 1985. Mind blown. (I was born in '86, albeit late in the year, so I find this especially hilarious.)

jinjin2 6y ago

I would have wished that Apple had been the ones acquiring Realm. They really had the best API for building apps with live collaboration I have ever experienced. Instead they went to MongoDB, so who knows how that will end?

joshspankit 6y ago
I always liked Realm but have not heard anything about them lately. Where did they go, and is the current work as powerful as the early stuff?
- jamil7 6y ago
  I’m not really a fan of MongoDB but the handling of Realm so far seems well done. I migrated an app to their new sync service and everything worked fine. They also offer a fairly generous free plan and are open sourcing the sync engine.
- dep_b 6y ago
  I tried to use it recently and it was an endless nightmare of suck. But perhaps I'm just allergic for any type of framework that tries to dictate my app structure and threading strategy.
alexashka 6y ago
Realm was a dead end - it was based on a custom database, which was a mistake. Them going to Mongo is actually the best possible outcome - by replacing their dead end custom database with MongoDB, they make MongoDB into a more compelling product, making document-based databases more batteries-included than ever before, which is excellent news.

onion2k 6y ago

The HN crowd generally prefers native apps and gets tired of the electron parade... There's no significant preference for native; it's just that we won't tolerate bad apps. I'd guess that VSCode is the most popular editor among users here by a long way, and that Google Docs has far more users than MS Word. HN readers don't pick native apps when there's a good Electron or web-based alternative.

vulcan01 6y ago
To add on, the reason why it might seem that > the HN crowd generally prefers native apps is because it is hard to write a good Electron / web app that is actually performant + easy to use. Which is why many people here are wary of new Electron apps.
alwillis 6y ago
>I'd guess that VSCode is the most popular editor among users here by a long way I don't know about that. When ever there's an article about Vim, it gets lots and lots of useful, insightful comments. If you search for Vim on HN, you'll see the catalog of Vim posts and threads. I haven't seen the same thing regarding VS Code.