Concurrent Command and Consistency Management for Distributed Compound Document Authoring

Collaborative document authoring between geographically distributed users is increasingly common in our professional and personal lives. Corresponding systems aim to allow for the involvement of locally unavailable specialists while connecting familiar single-user functionality with an accessible, distributed multi-user environment. However, considering the highly dynamic processing loads on modern machines, accounting for network inadequacies, and providing a user-adjustable, mainly interruption-free work environment still presents some challenges. To address these challenges, we integrated our fine-granular data model, concurrency-based command application, and data-type specific consistency management into a distributed authoring environment. The collaboration environment provides individual sites sufficient independence to allow the local users to adapt their work experience based on personal preference and other, machine-related factors. This paper discusses our approach for a responsive, yet unobtrusive and adaptable distributed compound document authoring environment with the focus on concurrent and mainly autonomous command application and consistency management.