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I had a real soft spot for OpenDoc, remembering seeing the demos at AppleExpo in the late 90's. Yes you have to start with what people need and go from there.

I had a real soft spot for OpenDoc, remembering seeing the demos at AppleExpo in the late 90's. Yes you have to start with what people need and go from there. However, you can also start from what a niche of people need and go from there. Honestly I think OpenDoc was way too ahead of its time to be groked by mainstream users. Currently we have various workbook online apps (like Observable) that are similar in spirit and super useful to those who know how to leverage them, but haven't yet crossed into the mainstream.

shockeychap 5y ago
I can understand this. I've been enamored with good engineering many a time, and it has its place. Something that's well engineered often WANTS to be a good solution. But I also agree with the concept of starting with "where can I take the customer" rather "how can I present this awesome new technology". Another variation on this concept was an article by Joel Spolsky in which he coined the term "Architecture Astronauts". He describes well the manner in which an architecture astronaut looks at something like Napster and generalizes to peer-to-peer messaging while missing the excitement of "search for song. find song.". https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/04/21/dont-let-architecture-astronauts-scare-you/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/04/21/dont-let-architect...
- duxup 5y ago
  You see it time and again where a X clone shows up and you use it and realize ... the clone has no soul and none of the convince or emotion that what it tries to copy has. It copies the notes but can't put a song together.
pcurve 5y ago
Oh, do you happen to remember this OpenDoc vs OLE (with Gates) t-shirt? https://www.depop.com/products/chard_on-vintage-microsoft-open-doc/ https://www.depop.com/products/chard_on-vintage-microsoft-op... I went to a big computer trade show at Jacob Javitz center in the 90s and got this same shirt. On a side note, my memory of OpenDoc isn't as rosy as others. It was very slow and memory hog, when memory cost was astronomical. Use cases was too niche for ordinary users.
scarface74 5y ago
You never tried to use CyberDog…

shockeychap 5y ago

I can understand this. I've been enamored with good engineering many a time, and it has its place. Something that's well engineered often WANTS to be a good solution. But I also agree with the concept of starting with "where can I take the customer" rather "how can I present this awesome new technology". Another variation on this concept was an article by Joel Spolsky in which he coined the term "Architecture Astronauts". He describes well the manner in which an architecture astronaut looks at something like Napster and generalizes to peer-to-peer messaging while missing the excitement of "search for song. find song.". https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/04/21/dont-let-architecture-astronauts-scare-you/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/04/21/dont-let-architect...

duxup 5y ago
You see it time and again where a X clone shows up and you use it and realize ... the clone has no soul and none of the convince or emotion that what it tries to copy has. It copies the notes but can't put a song together.

pcurve 5y ago

Oh, do you happen to remember this OpenDoc vs OLE (with Gates) t-shirt? https://www.depop.com/products/chard_on-vintage-microsoft-open-doc/ https://www.depop.com/products/chard_on-vintage-microsoft-op... I went to a big computer trade show at Jacob Javitz center in the 90s and got this same shirt. On a side note, my memory of OpenDoc isn't as rosy as others. It was very slow and memory hog, when memory cost was astronomical. Use cases was too niche for ordinary users.

scarface74 5y ago

You never tried to use CyberDog…