From: chandhok+@cs.cmu.edu (Ravinder Chandhok)
Newsgroups: comp.groupware
Subject: Re: Announcing PREP 1.0a7
Date: 13 Apr 92 14:47:45 GMT
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon


I just wrote a response about PREP that I thought I would share, since it
explains a little about PREP, and contrasts it with Instant Update from On
Technologies.  Also, a couple of people ahve asked about the speed of PREP.

PREP uses a fairly unspectacular word processing building block.  Large
files (over 10-20 pages) can make PREP do some things slowly (like opening
the files, and switching between windows).  But once the files are read in,
editing and all the rest should proceed fairly rapidly.  We like PREP enough
to use instead of MS Word until the last stages of our writing.  Your
mileage may vary.

We expect to upgrade the PREP WP building block in the near future.

-Rob

----------------------------------------------------------------------

>can you give me some usage tips for PREP???  I don't follow the
>documentation on how to use it.  If it's running on one person's
>machine, how do others comment and work on the document?  What are
>some actual uses that you've seen in testing and development??  Are
>there any examples or sample files that can be shared??

I think the misconception that you have is that PREP is like Instant Update.
It isn't.  There is no facility in PREP to support *real-time* or
*same-time* editing of the same document.

PREP, at this point, ignores document sharing issue.  A typical scenerio is
to put out a document for comments, say it is called "paper".  Two people
add annoations, and drop the files back in as "paper+1" and "paper+2".  You
can then merge the two sets of comments back via cut and paste of the new
columns(the links should stay properly aligned).  Then, you revise, perhaps
respond to comments with a column of your own, and put out the new version
again.

I also have used PREP to conduct multiple issue discussions, where each
issue is a chunk, and each person's comments are in a column, and the left
to right relationship of the columns reflects the time at which the
columns/comments were made.

PREP's main goal is to make communication between co-authors explicit.  So
when I hand out a paper for review in PREP, it usually has (at least) two
columns: the actual content, and my own comments/designs for the paper.  It
works well for me - I co-author papers via email this way with people across
the country.

>I was a beta tester for IU and have used it a great deal.  I'm looking
>for something like it to work with in other situations.

If we get our next grant, we will be working on psuedo-synchronous editing
(that is, editing where the change propgation is close enough to be
considered synchronous, yet degrades gracefully based on your desired degree
of "coupling").  Then you will be able to do some "IU-like" things with PREP.

>PS-You can edit IU documents NOT connected to the server (ie, on the
>road on a PowerBook) and when you reconnect, you can update.

Right.  I just don't think the conflict resolution works very well in this
case.  IU assumes you update *often*.  At least as far as I can tell.
-- 
Ravinder (Rob) Chandhok              Internet : chandhok+@cs.cmu.edu
Carnegie Mellon University           AppleLink: A14
Newsgroups: comp.groupware