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NCSA Mosaic
NCSA Mosaic for the Macintosh (or more commonly called MacMosaic) is a part of the family of browsers that raised the public's awareness of the World Wide Web. Unlike MacWeb or Netscape (described later), MacMosaic seems to trying to create a browser application for use in public spaces (exemplified by it Custom Menu, Annotate, and Kiosk menu options) and not necessarily for an individual's desktop.
Custom Menu
Using the Navigate/Custom Menu menu option, you can create new menu items in the menubar. Once new items are created, you can import previously created hotlists into those items or add and edit your own URLs. No other Macintosh WWW browser offers this feature to date. This can be extraordinary useful when MacMosaic is put into a public space. By creating new menus you can preselect tried and true Internet resources for your reader's use. These resources can then be consistently and continuously made available from the menubar. On an individual level, you too can use this feature to make available extended hotlists of resources. In effect, more than any other browser, you can begin to create your on personalized Internet resources library.
Annotate
Annotation is another unique feature of MacMosaic. In the "early days" of the World Wide Web there was much talk about annotation servers. The purpose of these servers was to save people's comments about Internet accessible documents. Once an annotation was created it was to be accessible to anybody else viewing same page. Thus allowing for some sort of continual dialog surrounding Internet documents. While annotation never really made it out off of the drawing board, MacMosaic still allows you to annotate Internet documents, although only locally, with text or audio.
To annotate a document you simply choose Text... or Audio from the Annotate menu. If you choose the text option, then you are given the opportunity to enter comments. After you are finished writing your comment a link is appended to the bottom of the page. Clicking on the link then brings up the annotation. MacMosaic keeps track of the URL's you view, and every time you return to a URL you have visited before and annotated your annotations appear. You can now even annotate the annotation.
Audio annotations work in a very similar manner. By selecting Audio... from the Annotation you are presented with the standard Macintosh sound recording dialog box. You can then record your annotation and it is "attached" to the document. Later you then have the opportunity to hear your annotation.
Kiosk mode
By selecting the Options/Kiosk menu option you turn MacMosaic into a minimal level browser; kiosk mode eliminates the Annotate menu, as well as any Custom menus you may have created, and reduces the number of options under the Options menu. It also removed the Open commands from the File menu eliminating the possibility of viewing documents other than the ones on your server. Thus, MacMosaic can be put into a public space for public use and reducing the number of options for end-users. (Fewer options usually leads to less confusion.) Unfortunately, the only way to get out of kiosk mode is to delete MacMosaic's Preference file all together and start all over again.
Customizing the HTML
Just like MacWeb, you can customize just about every aspect of the HTML rendered on your screen. You can do this with the Options/Styles... menu. If you first create a preferences file specifying how you want your HTML rendered, and then you can distribute that preferences file to your audience, then your HTML will appear on their screens in the manner you intended.
Adding MIME type information
Adding MIME types and helper applications to MacMosaic is done through the Options/Preferences... menu. Once you select Helpers from the icons on the left, you are presented with two fields. The field on the left list file name extension and the MIME types associated with the extensions. You can add new MIME types using the button below this field. The field on the left lists MIME types and the applications with which they are associated. Adding a help application then requires you to select the MIME type and then choose the application from a standard Macintosh dialog box. The procedure is relatively straight forward.
Summary
MacMosaic has a lot of potential, especially for use in public areas. Unfortunately, because it frequently hangs and crashes your computer the application does not seem quite mature. Granted, the "current" release is version 1.03 and not 2.0.0 beta 9, but version 1.03 does not support FORMs, a necessary part of the World Wide Web today. On the other hand, this browser and its siblings are what brought HTTP to the attention of the Internet community. For that alone it deserves special recognition.
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Eric last edited this page on September 26, 1995. Please feel free to send comments.