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Comment by csulmone | Hacker News Reader

I wonder how the collaboration inside of applications works. Is there going to be a new API for integration?

Since dropbox knows which files are being worked on, I don't actually think it needs to be inside of the application, it could just as well be a standalone overlay. The "sneek peak" screenshot does indeed look like an overlay that pops up when you open a file and which tracks the collaborative status. It also seems like it adds messenging functionality, which I must admit looks neat - pointed messenging functionality tends to be a lot more productive than general purpose messenging.

Yeah, I see that. It would be really nice if you could see the other people editing the file, what they are editing, and a way to diff versions. (Similar to Google Docs editing) This would definitely require some sort of data API.

I could see this being really interesting while collaborating on a complex 3d model or scene. I change one spot of the scene and it propagates to everyone else using the application.

Still right now if you edit the same file from different locations at the same time you will end up with conflicting copies. I wonder how/if they solved this.

From what I can see there, that is a general windows overlay and not an intergration into Office, which would be much more ugly and afaik would not leak outside the window. So I guess it goes a bit like: DB watch files, find pid of process editing them (PowerPoint w/e) and they overlay a window.

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