Real Differences between OT and CRDT in Correctness and Complexity for Consistency Maintenance in Co-Editors

TL;DR

This paper critically compares OT and CRDT techniques for co-editors, revealing that CRDT claims of superiority are unfounded and explaining why OT remains dominant in real-world applications.

Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive analysis of OT and CRDT, exposing flaws in CRDT solutions and clarifying the reasons behind OT's continued prevalence.

Findings

CRDT claims of superiority are refuted by evidence.

CRDT solutions have hidden complexities and flaws.

OT remains the preferred method in practical co-editors.

Abstract

OT (Operational Transformation) was invented for supporting real-time co-editors in the late 1980s and has evolved to become core techniques widely used in today's working co-editors and adopted in industrial products. CRDT (Commutative Replicated Data Type) for co-editors was first proposed around 2006, under the name of WOOT (WithOut Operational Transformation). Follow-up CRDT variations are commonly labeled as "post-OT" techniques capable of making concurrent operations natively commutative in co-editors. On top of that, CRDT solutions have made broad claims of superiority over OT solutions, and often portrayed OT as an incorrect and inefficient technique. Over one decade later, however, CRDT is rarely found in working co-editors; OT remains the choice for building the vast majority of today's co-editors. Contradictions between the reality and CRDT's purported advantages have been the source of much confusion and debate among co-editing researcher sand developers. To seek truth from facts, we set out to conduct a comprehensive and critical review on representative OT and CRDT solutions and co-editors based on them. From this work, we have made important discoveries about OT and CRDT, and revealed facts and evidences that refute CRDT claims over OT on all accounts. These discoveries help explain the underlying reasons for the choice between OT and CRDT in the real world. We report these results in a series of three articles. In the second article of this series, we reveal the differences between OT and CRDT in their basic approaches to realizing the same general transformation and how such differences had resulted in different challenges and consequential correctness and complexity issues. Moreover, we reveal hidden complexity and algorithmic flaws with representative CRDT solutions, and discuss common myths and facts related to correctness and complexity of OT and CRDT.