Cola - Text CRDT for Real-Time Collaborative Editing
=====================================================

https://github.com/nomad/cola

What is it?
  A Rust library implementing a Conflict-free Replicated Data Type (CRDT)
  specifically designed for collaborative text editing. Allows multiple peers
  to edit the same document concurrently without a central server.


Why it's interesting
--------------------
  - Peer-to-peer: no server needed, peers sync directly
  - Convergence guaranteed: all replicas eventually reach same state
  - Designed for text: not a generic CRDT, optimized for editing operations
  - Rust: fast, safe, could compile to WASM for browser or FFI for other langs


How CRDTs work (simplified)
---------------------------
  Instead of "insert char at position 5", operations are like "insert char
  after unique-id-xyz". Each character gets a unique ID based on who inserted
  it and when. This means concurrent edits never conflict - they just get
  ordered deterministically.


Potential uses
--------------
  - Build an editor-agnostic collab layer
  - Terminal multiplexer with shared buffers
  - Plugin backend for vim/emacs/helix
  - Pair with a simple transport (WebRTC, TCP, WebSocket)


To explore
----------
  1. Clone the repo, run the examples
  2. Look at the Replica and Insertion types
  3. See how edits are encoded and merged
  4. Think about what transport layer you'd use
  5. Consider: could this power a "collab daemon" that editors connect to?


Related projects
----------------
  - Automerge: more general CRDT, bigger community
  - Yjs: JavaScript CRDT, powers many web editors
  - diamond-types: another Rust text CRDT, by the Automerge folks


Links
-----
  Repo:     https://github.com/nomad/cola
  CRDTs:    https://crdt.tech
  Automerge: https://automerge.org
  Yjs:      https://yjs.dev