Designing and Implementing Multi-User Applications: A Case Study


Prasun Dewan
Software-Practice and Experience
January 1993, Volume 23, Number 1, pages 75-94.

Abstract: We have developed a new multi-user application that integrates and extends the concepts in a variety of current multi-user applications. It allows multiple users to store, retrieve, and browse through nformation, communicate information both synchronously and asynchronously, create ``pipes'' of consistent, editable, and persistent views, and interactively specify handlers for events. It has been implemented using the experimental technologies of distributed objects and multi-user editor generation. Our work on this application suggests a new and practical model for designing and implementing multi-user applications. In this paper, we describe the user interface and implementation of the application, give the rationale for our design choices, describe our experience with the tools and techniques used in the implementation, and present conclusions and directions for future work.



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