CoWS - Collaborative Writing through Shared Spaces

    INTRODUCTION

    CoWS is a multi-synchronous collaborative writing space that aims to be used in mobile environments.

    In CoWS several authors can collaborate editing paragraphs that will compose a single final text. They can collaborate working at the same time (synchronous) or in a disconnected fashion (asynchronous).
    In asynchronous mode the author modifications are perceived by the other authors only when he reconnects to the shared space.

    Support offline work and asynchronous collaboration is essential in mobile environments where disconnections are frequent.

    CoWS is constructed under Tuple Spaces paradigm, where each paragraph is a tuple in the space. It is developed using the middleware Lime and its tuple coordination model.

    Lime additional information may be found at http://lime.sourceforge.net



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    INSTALLING

    To install CoWS you just have to download the .zip distribution file and extract it, keeping the path definition.

    The extracted files will have the following structure:

    • \cows
      • \bin contains the .class files
      • \docs contains the paper
      • \jars contains Lime library
        • \lime.jar middleware *Lime* library
        • \lights.jar tuple space *LighTS* library
      • \src contains the .java source code files
        • \CowsAgent.java
        • \CowsUtil.java
        • \LChatMessage.java
        • \Paragraph.java
        • \UInterface.java
      • compileRunCows.bat .bat file to compile and run CoWS app
      • runCows.bat .bat file to run CoWS app
      • runAnotherCows.bat .bat file to run another instance of CoWS app at the same host


    COMPILING AND RUNNING

    To compile and run CoWS do the following:

    • 1. edit the compileRunCows.bat file
    • 2. Change the variable COWS_DIR to the home directory where cows was installed
    • 3. Change the variable JAVA_DIR to where your JVM is installed
    • 4. save the file
    • 5. execute the compileRunCows.bat file


    If you want to run another instance of CoWs in the same host, you'll have to execute the runAnotherCows.bat file instead. You must configure it the same way:

    • 1. edit the runAnotherCows.bat file
    • 2. Change the variable COWS_DIR to the home directory where cows was installed
    • 3. Change the variable JAVA_DIR to where your JVM is installed
    • 4. save the file
    • 5. execute the runAnotherCows.bat file




    CoWS DEVELOPMENT TEAM

    Any questions or suggestions, contact the CoWS development team.


      Berthonio Lucena, Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil
      bml@cin.ufpe.br