Efficient Collaborative Text Editing: A CRDT Implementation
2025-08-20
This article presents a collaborative text editing algorithm based on CRDTs, similar to approaches used in popular libraries like Yjs and Automerge. Each character is assigned a unique identifier (site ID and clock), and a tree-based index with counters orders characters. Deletion involves adding the character's identifier to a deleted set (tombstones). Efficiency is boosted by optimizations such as merging successive inserts, storing blocks contiguously, and using a range-based representation for the deleted set. This ensures efficient handling of large text pastes and simultaneous edits.
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