- Publish and Subscribe
Publish and Subscribe was a document linking model introduced by
Apple Computer in System 7. Named the Edition Manager in developer documentation [cite web | title=Publish and Subscribe (MacApp PG) | url=http://developer.apple.com/documentation/mac/MacAppProgGuide/MacAppProgGuide-61.html | accessdate=2007-09-16] , it extended the existingcut and paste editing model with a notification system; "subscribers" could include parts of "published" documents within themselves, and changes to the original published document would be noticed and updated by the subscribers. To the user the system was very similar to cut and paste in concept; material would be selected from the source document and published, creating an "edition file", then placed into the subscriber by selecting that clipping file and positioning it inside the document.In general terms the concept was very similar to
Microsoft 'sObject Linking and Embedding system. Unlike OLE, the Edition Manager was comparatively complex from a programming standpoint. Suffering fromsecond system effect , it included features intended to make it better than OLE, including support for non-rectangular areas, network notifications and an extensiveuser interface . A result of this complexity was poor uptake among developers, and applications providing Publish and Subscribe were few and far between. One of the few products to use it effectively wasClaris 's suite of software, includingClarisWorks which had already built a system somewhat similar in concept.At the time many in the industry felt that the Publish and Subscribe concept was the "next big thing". Apple and Microsoft were not the only two companies trying to introduce such a system; most major software vendors attempted to introduce similar systems, and unsurprisingly
NeXTSTEP included a powerful and very easy-to-implement version. However it did not take long to notice that users could find few real-world uses for the system. Further it was sometimes confusing to use; if the document included live links it was no longer possible to simply copy it to afloppy disk (for instance), the clipping file had to be copied as well. Eventually most vendors simply abandoned the concept, while Microsoft re-positioned theirs as aninternet browser plugin system known asActiveX .References
External links
* [http://www.archive.org/details/episode_909 Internet Archive: Details: Macintosh System 7.0]
* [http://www.guidebookgallery.org/ads/magazines/macos/macos70upgradekit Mac OS 7.0 upgrade kit ad]
* [http://developer.apple.com/documentation/mac/IAC/IAC-23.html#HEADING23-0 Inside Macintosh: Edition Manager]
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