bjorn@dataioDataio.UUCP (Bjorn Freeman-Benson) (05/06/86)
I have a question about how object oriented systems (such as SmallTalk) handle multiple users. It seems to me that such systems work well for a single user, but not for multiple users accessing the same data. My specific question(s) are: Suppose we have a type "LispCode", which is of type "TextFile". Thus any operations that are not defined local to LispCode are inherited from TextFile (or maybe even higher up). For example, let's say that the BROWSE operation for TextFile is "ViEditor", and thus both user Joseph and user Mary will use ViEditor to browse instances of LispCode. But what if Joseph has a browser that he likes better, say "EmacsEditor". So, he could install it as the browser local to LispCode. But, Mary hates Emacs and wants Vi, now what? It seems to me that each user will have to have a complete environment. And if that's true, how do the environments for different users interact? Am I on the right track? How do real systems handle this? And, could you mail references to you favorite "Object Systems" book? Thanks... Bjorn Freeman-Benson