11 Facts About OpenDoc

OpenDoc is a defunct multi-platform software componentry framework standard created by Apple in the 1990s for compound documents, intended as an alternative to Microsoft's proprietary Object Linking and Embedding .

OpenDoc development was transferred to the non-profit Component Integration Laboratories, Inc, owned by a growing team of major corporate backers and effectively starting an industry consortium.

Core idea of OpenDoc is to create small, reusable components, responsible for a specific task, such as text editing, bitmap editing, or browsing an FTP server.

OpenDoc is a framework in which these components can run together, and a compound document format for storing the data created by each component.

At its inception, OpenDoc was envisioned to allow, for example, smaller, third-party developers to enter the then-competitive office suite software market, and build small, specialized applications instead of having to provide a complete suite.

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Taligent adopted OpenDoc, and promised somewhat similar functionality although based on very different underlying mechanisms.

Novell announced at the Brainshare conference, a plan to break up most or all of its products into OpenDoc components, beginning with WordPerfect applications and then its NetWare operating system.

Novell announced a plan for OpenDoc to become the basis for building UnixWare applications.

In 1996, OpenDoc was adopted by the Object Management Group, in part due to SOM's use of Common Object Request Broker Architecture, maintained by the OMG.

In March 1997, OpenDoc was discontinued with the return of Steve Jobs to Apple, who had been at NeXT during its development.

OpenDoc said Apple's management "put a bullet through [OpenDoc's] head", and most of the Apple Advanced Technology Group was laid off in a big reduction in force.