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Ask HN: alternatives to EtherPad?

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Re: Ask HN: alternatives to EtherPad?

#21

Post by jeff18 »

trotzke wrote: post #20
jeff18 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is pretty epic -- the only problems are that it doesn't have an API to retrieve text from it or create a new pad. Also, it is not suitable for embedding. However, as a standalone editor this is the best alternative I've seen. UPDATE: I take it all back. This product is junk. Only one person can edit the entire document at once. If someone is typing, it literally locks the entire screen. This is worse than Google…

The first version of Squad didn't lock people out, but after some testing we liked the lock out method for code review and help purposes. The goggle wave everyone type at once stuff is like reverb in the 80's if you ask me. Too much. Particularly when you are dealing with multiple tabs. What I want to do when I'm asking a buddy to take a look at or help me with code is see what he or she is doing. The tool really was…

That's awesome that you've found a niche for you product, but it seems to me that with a weeks worth of tweaking, you could be the next EtherPad.

Re: Ask HN: alternatives to EtherPad?

#23

Post by trotzke »

jeff18 wrote: post #21
trotzke wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first version of Squad didn't lock people out, but after some testing we liked the lock out method for code review and help purposes. The goggle wave everyone type at once stuff is like reverb in the 80's if you ask me. Too much. Particularly when you are dealing with multiple tabs. What I want to do when I'm asking a buddy to take a look at or help me with code is see what he or she is doing. The tool really was…

That's awesome that you've found a niche for you product, but it seems to me that with a weeks worth of tweaking, you could be the next EtherPad.

Maybe down the road. We are only about 3 days old. :)

Re: Ask HN: alternatives to EtherPad?

#25

Post by al3x »

aditya wrote: post #3

If you're looking for collaborative code editors, Mozilla's bespin is (going to be) epic: https://bespin.mozilla.com/

The guys who were really pushing Bespin forward went to Palm several months ago. The project looks great, but it may not have the same velocity right now.

Re: Ask HN: alternatives to EtherPad?

#26

Post by futurephonic »

jeff18 wrote: post #9
spolsky wrote: post #6

http://squadedit.com is a pretty similar service. The free version has too many flashing ads for my taste... hopefully they'll fix that!

This is pretty epic -- the only problems are that it doesn't have an API to retrieve text from it or create a new pad. Also, it is not suitable for embedding. However, as a standalone editor this is the best alternative I've seen. UPDATE: I take it all back. This product is junk. Only one person can edit the entire document at once. If someone is typing, it literally locks the entire screen. This is worse than Google…

I wouldn't want multiple collaborators editing my code all at once - I wouldn't know what they are doing. If I invite someone to collaborate I need to know what they changed before I redeploy the code.

Re: Ask HN: alternatives to EtherPad?

#28

Post by rufo »

futurephonic wrote: post #26
jeff18 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is pretty epic -- the only problems are that it doesn't have an API to retrieve text from it or create a new pad. Also, it is not suitable for embedding. However, as a standalone editor this is the best alternative I've seen. UPDATE: I take it all back. This product is junk. Only one person can edit the entire document at once. If someone is typing, it literally locks the entire screen. This is worse than Google…

I wouldn't want multiple collaborators editing my code all at once - I wouldn't know what they are doing. If I invite someone to collaborate I need to know what they changed before I redeploy the code.

EtherPad had colored background for each collaborator, as well as a timeline slider and saved revisions so you could see who did what at each point.

Re: Ask HN: alternatives to EtherPad?

#30

Post by jeff18 »

trotzke wrote: post #23
jeff18 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's awesome that you've found a niche for you product, but it seems to me that with a weeks worth of tweaking, you could be the next EtherPad.

Maybe down the road. We are only about 3 days old. :)

Dude, if I were you, I'd drop everything I'm doing and try to push out a feature complete EtherPad replacement within the next few days. There are hundreds of thousands if not millions of people who used to use EtherPad and are now stranded. Their product is tried and true and just vanished off the face of the planet because it was that good.

Why would you ignore that and try to carve a small niche for yourself for code reviews when the whole pie is right there for the taking?!

This will probably be the biggest opportunity your company will ever have in terms of user acquisition.

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