View source for Towards Viable Google Slides in Open Source

https://chatgpt.com/share/69d3a033-ca24-8331-98ea-093fbcf0c01e

= Why This Is Now Achievable =

== 1. Real-Time Collaboration Is No Longer a Research Problem ==

Previously, this was the hardest part:

* Operational Transform (OT) or CRDT design
* Conflict resolution
* Cursor syncing
* Offline/merge behavior

Now:

* Libraries like Yjs and Automerge provide:
** Shared data structures
** Real-time sync
** Offline-first behavior
** Awareness (who’s editing what)

Impact:

* You no longer build the collaboration engine—you plug it in

== 2. The Browser Became a Serious Application Runtime ==

Previously:

* Canvas/WebGL were immature
* Performance was inconsistent
* Input handling (drag, resize, selection) was painful

Now:

* Stable Canvas/WebGL stacks
* High-performance rendering
* Mature UI ecosystems (React, etc.)

You can build:

* Slide canvases
* Object manipulation (resize, rotate)
* Zoom/pan editors

Impact:

* The visual editor layer is now straightforward engineering, not experimental

== 3. Editor Frameworks Exist (You Don’t Start From Zero) ==

Previously:

* You had to write:
** Selection models
** Cursor logic
** Document trees

Now:

* Rich-text and structured editors exist (ProseMirror, Slate)
* Canvas editors (Fabric.js, Konva) handle object manipulation

Impact:

* You assemble instead of invent

== 4. AI Removes the Integration Bottleneck ==

This is the biggest shift.

Previously:

* Integrating all components took weeks or months
* Debugging edge cases was slow and manual

Now AI can:

* Generate working scaffolds
* Wire Yjs into an editor
* Build drag/resize behavior
* Implement undo/redo stacks
* Handle serialization (JSON ↔ UI)

Impact:

* What used to be hard engineering glue work is now mostly automated

== 5. Cloud/Backend Complexity Collapsed ==

Previously:

* You had to design:
** WebSocket servers
** Sync layers
** Persistence models

Now:

* Yjs providers (WebRTC, WebSocket)
* Firebase/Supabase-type backends
* Serverless infrastructure

Impact:

* Backend is no longer a primary blocker

== 6. Open-Source Examples Exist (Huge Accelerator) ==

You are no longer guessing architecture.

There are working systems you can study:

* Collaborative editors
* Whiteboards
* Slide tools
* Notion-like systems

Impact:

* You start from patterns, not theory

== 7. The Problem Scope Can Be Narrowed ==

This is subtle but critical.

Google Slides is hard because it tries to be:

* Universal
* Fully featured
* Backward compatible
* Enterprise-grade

You do not need that.

For OSE, the likely needs are:

* Structured slides tied to ideas/build systems
* Embedded editing in wiki
* Export capability

Impact:

* This is a much smaller and more tractable problem space

=Links=
*[[Local Server Image Upload Size Spec for Live Cloud Editable Documents]]