MoonEdit was a

collaborative real-time text editor A collaborative real-time editor is a type of collaborative software or web application which enables real-time collaborative editing, simultaneous editing, or live editing of the same digital document, computer file or cloud-stored data – su ...

. It was released for

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

and

FreeBSD FreeBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), which was based on Research Unix. The first version of FreeBSD was released in 1993. In 2005, FreeBSD was the most popular ...

. While the concept of real-time collaborative editing was famously demonstrated in 1968, MoonEdit was one of the first software products to fully implement it. First would be ''Instant Update'' from

ON Technology ON Technology Corporation was a software company in the United States. It was formed in 1987 by Mitch Kapor after his departure from Lotus Software. The original plan of the business was to build an object-oriented PC desktop environment provid ...

in 1991, then ''

SubEthaEdit SubEthaEdit is a collaborative real-time editor designed for Mac OS X. The name comes from the Sub-Etha communication network in ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' series. History SubEthaEdit was first released under the name Hydra in earl ...

'' around the same time as ''MoonEdit'', ~2003-2005. The software used code from

Ken Silverman Ken Silverman (born November 1, 1975) is an American game programmer, best known for writing the Build engine. It was most notably utilized by ''Duke Nukem 3D'', ''Shadow Warrior'', ''Blood'', and more than a dozen other games in the mid- to la ...

's BUILD

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs. The "engine" terminology is similar to the term "software engine" used in the software i ...

, and employed

client-side prediction Client-side prediction is a network programming technique used in video games intended to conceal negative effects of high latency connections. The technique attempts to make the player's input feel more instantaneous while governing the player's ...

to reduce the effect of latency. Up to 14 participants could edit simultaneously, each having independent cursor positions updated in real time. Text added by each participant was highlighted a different color. Users could connect to a public server or set up their own dedicated server. MoonEdit servers listened on

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

32123 by default. MoonEdit featured infinite undo history that could be browsed using a time-slider and replay button. Adler, A., Nash, J.C., Noël, S. (2006), Evaluating and implementing a collaborative office document system. Interacting with Computers, 18 (4), 665-682 MoonEdit was originally written by Tom Dobrowolski under the name ''Multi-Editoro'', while he was a student at

Gdańsk University of Technology The Gdańsk University of Technology (Gdańsk Tech, former ''GUT''; pl, Politechnika Gdańska) is a technical university in the Wrzeszcz borough of Gdańsk, and one of the oldest universities in Poland. It has eight faculties and with 41 fie ...

, in 2003. It could be downloaded for free for non-commercial use, but an announced commercial "PRO" version never appeared. Interest may have been lost due to the appearance of several web-based real-time editing platforms, starting with ''Writely'' (now ''

Google Docs Google Docs is an online word processor included as part of the free, web-based Google Docs Editors suite offered by Google, which also includes: Google Sheets, Google Slides, Google Drawings, Google Forms, Google Sites and Google Keep. Google Do ...

''), around 2006. While the software is no longer developed, many other text editors have adopted its feature set, including ''

Atom Every atom is composed of a nucleus and one or more electrons bound to the nucleus. The nucleus is made of one or more protons and a number of neutrons. Only the most common variety of hydrogen has no neutrons. Every solid, liquid, gas, and ...

'' (using the ''Teletype'' extension) and ''

Visual Studio Code Visual Studio Code, also commonly referred to as VS Code, is a source-code editor made by Microsoft with the Electron Framework, for Windows, Linux and macOS. Features include support for debugging, syntax highlighting, intelligent code complet ...

'' (using the ''Live Share'' extension).

References

External links

*{{webarchive , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161127063009/http://moonedit.com , date=27 November, 2016 , title=moonedit.com
How to connect to a MoonEdit-server?
at wiki-Woodstock
community-wiki: MoonEdit
- ideas and thoughts about the program, screenshots
teach-me-wiki
a wiki for organizing online lessons using MoonEdit and

Skype Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, deb ...

. Collaborative real-time editors

See also

References

External links