KISE Docs - Peer-to-Peer Collaborative Text Editor

Overview

This project is a peer-to-peer collaborative text editor built in Python. It allows multiple peers to edit a shared document while synchronizing changes across connected nodes.

The goal of this project was to understand distributed systems, document synchronization, and conflict handling by implementing a simple collaborative editor using an RGA-style data structure.

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Features

• Peer-to-peer communication using sockets
• Real-time document editing
• Insert and delete operations
• Operation history tracking
• Synchronization with multiple peers
• Support for offline editing
• Tombstone-based deletion
• Basic conflict handling using unique operation IDs
• Simulated network delay and message loss

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How It Works

Each peer runs its own server and can connect to other peers.

When a user edits the document, the operation is:

1. Given a unique ID
2. Applied locally
3. Stored in operation history
4. Broadcast to connected peers

The document is stored as a list of characters with unique IDs. Deleted characters are marked as tombstones before cleanup.

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Tech Stack

• Python
• Socket Programming
• Threading
• JSON
• Basic CRDT/RGA concepts

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Main Commands

add        # Add a peer
edit       # Insert or delete a character
view       # View current document
save       # Save document to a file
sync       # Sync with connected peers
reconnect  # Request missing operations
peers      # Show connected peers
exit       # Exit program

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Example Operation

Insert Operation

{
  "type": "insert",
  "position": 3,
  "character": "A",
  "uid": [1234567890, "user1"]
}

Delete Operation

{
  "type": "delete",
  "uid": [1234567890, "user1"]
}

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Current Limitations

• Command-line interface only
• No permanent network discovery
• Basic conflict resolution
• No authentication between peers
• Uses eval() for delete input, which should be replaced for safety

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Future Improvements

• Add a graphical interface
• Improve conflict resolution
• Replace eval() with safer input parsing
• Add peer authentication
• Add automatic peer discovery
• Improve document merge ordering

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What This Project Demonstrates

• Understanding of peer-to-peer systems
• Basic distributed document synchronization
• Socket programming in Python
• Concurrent programming with threads
• CRDT-style thinking using tombstones and operation IDs

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