Optional locking integrated with operational transformation in distributed real-time group editors

摘要

Locking is a standard technique in traditional distributed computing and database systems to ensure data integrity by prohibiting concurrent conflicting updates on shared data objects.Operational transformation is an innovative technique invented by groupware research for consistency maintenance in real-time group editors.In this paper,we will examine and explore the complementary roles of locking and operational transformation in consistency maintenance.A novel optional locking scheme is proposed and integrated with operation transformation to maintain both generic and context-specific consistency in a distributed,interactive,and collaborative environment.the integrated optional locking and operational transformation technique is fully distributed,highly responsive,non-blocking,and capable of avoiding locking overhead in the most common case of collaborative editing.