Preventing conflicts with shared files

[Michael A. Covington]

I have a C# application which is basically an editor for a special kind of
data file.

Users want to store the files in a shared folder on a server and edit them
from multiple PCs.

How can I keep 2 users (on different PCs) from opening the same file at the
same time?

Also, how error-prone is this process? That is, will we have problems with
the system thinking a file is open when it isn't -- when a user has left the
network without closing it, or something?

--

Michael A. Covington - Artificial Intelligence Ctr - University of Georgia

"In the core C# language it is simply not possible to have an uninitialized
variable, a 'dangling' pointer, or an expression that indexes an array
beyond its bounds. Whole categories of bugs that routinely plague C and C++
programs are thus eliminated." - A. Hejlsberg, The C# Programming Language