The evolution of model editors: browser and cloud based solutions
InMarch 2006, Google purchased Upstartle to gain access to their browser based word processor called Writely [1] This acquisition from over a decade ago led to what we now know as Google Docs, which ushered in a new form of collaborative authoring tools. The idea of using a Web browser as an editing platform, coupled with the storage options available within the cloud, provides powerful new capabilities that have transformed the way we interact with colleagues to design and create documents, as well as all other sorts of artifacts. Specialized text processing solutions, like the LaTeX focused Overleaf environment [2] bring a fresh new approach to collaboration using long standing traditional tools. Furthermore, browserand cloud based authoring tools have penetrated many domains. For example, in computer science education, tools such as Scratch help new programmers learn block based coding in a browser, where programs are stored in the cloud with a large repository (over 13.M shared Scratch programs are available at the time of this writing) of user shared examples [3] There are multiple benefits of combining browser based authoring environments with a cloud service. An obvious advantage is the platform independence that can be achieved through a browser, allowing the tool implementers to focus more on the core tool features, instead of the implementation morass of reproducing the same tool functionality across different platforms (browser incompatibility issues notwithstanding) Cloud services not only allow resources
Software Systems Modeling