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Did Ami Pro let dozens of users around the world edit the same document at the same time? Some of them being on cell phones? Did it automatically store your do

Did Ami Pro let dozens of users around the world edit the same document at the same time? Some of them being on cell phones? Did it automatically store your document somewhere that can be accessed from any computer with internet access? Seems to me like we really do have more features.

badsectoracula 6y ago
I think a problem here might be that those aren't exactly "Ami Pro" (or word processor in general) features, they're just tacked on the word processor even though it has nothing to do with word processing (even the multiple editors at the same time is essentially about having multiple views - not too different than opening two MDI windows in Office 97 or whatever with the same document but different positions - that happen to have input/output from across the network). Some of that can be done in an agnostic way by pairing Ami Pro with something like Dropbox. But ultimately for better use (and having applications focus on the stuff they're supposed to be about) the underlying system should allow for such uses - after all one of the original ideas behind Windows was to avoid having every application reinvent its own UI. But we just seem to be stuck around that point in most OSes (Cocoa probably being the exception of an OS framework that provides more than the basics)... if anything we're regressing with every application (on the desktop at least) ignoring the OS GUI and doing its own anyway.
- ncallaway 6y ago
  Sounds like a No True Scotsman argument for what counts as word processing features. I know plenty of scenarios where collaborative document editing is a killer feature as part of writing a document.
  - badsectoracula 6y ago
    I didn't argue that it wouldn't be a good (or "killer") feature, i argued that it could be a feature that is provided at a different level that lets the word processor focus on word processing (ie. what word processors are and should be about) while simultaneous/collaborative data editing is also provided for other applications (e.g. collaborative spreadsheet editing, or image editing, list editing or whatever else would make sense).
- adwn 6y ago
  Simultaneous editing of the same document over the Internet is a fundamentally different problem than having multiple views on a local machine: 1) On a local machine, only one view has the input focus, and 2) you don't have to deal with high-latency, unreliable communication and synchronization. > the underlying system should allow for such uses That's not possible in the general case. It's a hard enough problem for the specialized case of text editing.
  - badsectoracula 6y ago
    I do not see as a different problem really, what you are describing is having a separate cursor per view (which is something programs already do). Also i'm talking about an ideal hypothetical system here, not something that exists - but it is certainly possible to do something like that, you are way too quick to dismiss something as not possible.
yen223 6y ago
Did Ami Pro even have fonts?

badsectoracula 6y ago

I think a problem here might be that those aren't exactly "Ami Pro" (or word processor in general) features, they're just tacked on the word processor even though it has nothing to do with word processing (even the multiple editors at the same time is essentially about having multiple views - not too different than opening two MDI windows in Office 97 or whatever with the same document but different positions - that happen to have input/output from across the network). Some of that can be done in an agnostic way by pairing Ami Pro with something like Dropbox. But ultimately for better use (and having applications focus on the stuff they're supposed to be about) the underlying system should allow for such uses - after all one of the original ideas behind Windows was to avoid having every application reinvent its own UI. But we just seem to be stuck around that point in most OSes (Cocoa probably being the exception of an OS framework that provides more than the basics)... if anything we're regressing with every application (on the desktop at least) ignoring the OS GUI and doing its own anyway.

ncallaway 6y ago
Sounds like a No True Scotsman argument for what counts as word processing features. I know plenty of scenarios where collaborative document editing is a killer feature as part of writing a document.
- badsectoracula 6y ago
  I didn't argue that it wouldn't be a good (or "killer") feature, i argued that it could be a feature that is provided at a different level that lets the word processor focus on word processing (ie. what word processors are and should be about) while simultaneous/collaborative data editing is also provided for other applications (e.g. collaborative spreadsheet editing, or image editing, list editing or whatever else would make sense).
adwn 6y ago
Simultaneous editing of the same document over the Internet is a fundamentally different problem than having multiple views on a local machine: 1) On a local machine, only one view has the input focus, and 2) you don't have to deal with high-latency, unreliable communication and synchronization. > the underlying system should allow for such uses That's not possible in the general case. It's a hard enough problem for the specialized case of text editing.
- badsectoracula 6y ago
  I do not see as a different problem really, what you are describing is having a separate cursor per view (which is something programs already do). Also i'm talking about an ideal hypothetical system here, not something that exists - but it is certainly possible to do something like that, you are way too quick to dismiss something as not possible.

yen223 6y ago

Did Ami Pro even have fonts?