

EtherPad out of private beta - anuraggoel
http://etherpad.com/

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ruddzw
I had the chance to use EtherPad as part of a job interview while it was in
private beta. It was supposed to use Skype and EtherPad to get the full
effect. Skype broke, but EtherPad worked great. The ease of getting code to
the interviewer, and (I imagine) the ability to see the way I wrote the code
were really helpful.

If you're doing a phone screen interview in the future, I highly recommend
using EtherPad.

~~~
terpua
Wow, great use case. I wonder if EtherPad can focus on such a niche and charge
for it (with other relevant features).

~~~
ruddzw
They actually know about the use case: it's one of their 5 suggested use
cases: <http://etherpad.com/ep/about/product#uses5>

But you're right, marketing specifically to software shops could be a good way
to make a profit.

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pclark
Nifty. Pity there aren't more syntax options (just JS)

Here's a test URL to toy with: <http://etherpad.com/qtUr4Iw3mr>

~~~
exfswlkrji
It just sits there saying "connecting..." So does that mean no other user
online, or my Javascript is broken, or my net connections is down, or they are
slashdotted, or what?

~~~
aaroniba
This probably means there's an incompatibility with your browser/ISP/firewall
combination. If you click the "reconnect" button, it will submit diagnostic
info to help us debug, or you can mail support @ etherpad.com for help.

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greml1n
Ah, so it is a web-version of something like SubEthaEdit?
(<http://www.codingmonkeys.de/subethaedit/>)

I think the private, for-pay service in your FaQ sounds like an interesting
potential replacement.

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ThomPete
For those of you interested there is a great interview with Etherpad by Phill
Windly at IT-Conversations
<http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3985.html>

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cosmo7
Ow! My eyes!

Seriously, hire a designer to smooth out your site, it's well worth it.

~~~
pchivers
Ow! My eyes!

Please design a new favicon. The current one looks like an ode to mid-nineties
shareware sites.

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initself
The volume on the screencast is way too low.

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axod
It'd be interesting to know what changed from last time, if I remember right
it was something to do with database overload?

Don't mean to pry, but it'd be cool to know what the original issue was...

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flatline
Looks pretty neat. I'm still trying to find the Emacs keybinding option...More
seriously, some basic formatting options may be nice, for actual document
production vs., as some others mentioned, a fancy chat system.

My first thought was that a version control repository and editing system
could be built on top of this that would actually allow two people to see each
others' edits simultaneously but compile only their own revisions until a
commit occurred.

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cracki
there's subethaedit as others mentioned, and there's also gobby:

<http://gobby.0x539.de/trac/>

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CalmQuiet
It seems to response quite quickly at this point - as quickly as the demo
shows in the etherpad.com demo video. Those of you who tried pclark's test/toy
link: try signing up and selecting a color for your editing. Pretty slick!

I'm wondering what their business model is? No ads yet. Will this just
showcase their hacking abilities?

~~~
exfswlkrji
Corporate versions with security and active directory authentication. Rich
text, images, spreadsheets in a paid-for version. Branded versions to include
in your own site.

Since it generally requires at least two people who need to communicate then
at least one of them is likely to be prepared to pay.It's not just an
eyeballs=advert web2.0 thing.

~~~
aaroniba
Yes, exactly.

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mlok
There is an alternative here : <http://collabedit.com/>

(seen in a slashdot comment on this page :
<http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/21/1626208> )

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gacek
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonedit>

However, their site is currently down. And yes, that was an offline app, so
etherpad is much better.

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cellis
Is this like chat reimagined or am i just crazy?

~~~
pg
When you want to test out Etherpad and don't already have text you want to
edit, you tend to use it like chat. But even then you can do things you can't
do with chat, because you can see what the other person is typing and start
responding before they finish (like in a real conversation). I've suggested to
the Appjets that they might want to make a variant of Etherpad aimed at chat.

~~~
DaniFong
Like in the old unix talk :-)

I used to prefer this mode, but some of my friends hated it.

~~~
axod
Does it scale well past 2 people talking? Seems like that could get difficult
to show on screen.

It's certainly quite fun, but not sure if it's more useful.

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nirmal
Is EtherPad out of beta functionally equivalent to EtherPad in beta?

~~~
misuba
Yes.

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mindaugas
I can't believe it's Javascript !!!

Seriuosly - Excelent job!

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agnokapathetic
Anyone know when AppJet with Comet support be released?

~~~
misuba
Strictly speaking, AppJet already supports Comet, but the full support that's
used in EtherPad is part of the next major version of the AppJet platform.
From the sound of the ITConversations interview linked above, the new platform
won't be out until a bit after Enterprise EtherPad.

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Tichy
The simplicity argument kills the discussion for me. It can't be right that to
achieve columness, one has to wade through cascades of ever more esoteric
articles explaining how to hack CSS.

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keltecp11
FANTASTIC!

