AMosaic
{{Short description|Web browser port for Amiga computers}}
{{Infobox Software
| name = AMosaic
| logo = Amosaic-logo.gif
| screenshot = Amosaic-screenshot.gif
| caption = AMosaic 1.1 screenshot
| developer = Michael Fischer, Michael Meyer, Michael Witbrock
| released = {{Start date and age|1993|12|25}}
| latest release version = 2.0 pre-release
| discontinued = yes
| programming language = C
| operating_system = AmigaOS
| platform = Amiga
| genre = Web browser
| website = {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200105221936if_/http://www.mfischer.com/legacy/amosaic/ |date=January 5 2020 |title=www.mfischer.com/legacy/amosaic/}}
}}
AMosaic was a port to the Amiga of the Mosaic web browser, developed beginning in 1993,{{citation |url=http://www.mfischer.com/legacy/amosaic/StatusOld.html |title=Mosaic Revision History (Old) |first=Michael |last=Fischer |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714081346/http://www.mfischer.com/legacy/amosaic/StatusOld.html |archive-date=14 July 2011 |access-date=7 July 2010 |url-status=dead }} and was the first graphical web browser for the Amiga. AMosaic was based on NCSA's Mosaic, but was not distributed by the University of Illinois or NCSA. It was developed by Michael Fischer at Stony Brook University,{{cite book|last1=December|first1=John|year=1994|last2=Randall|first2=Neil|page=258f|title=World Wide Web Unleashed|publisher=Sams Publishing|isbn=978-0-672-30617-4}} Michael Meyer at the University of California, Berkeley, and Michael Witbrock at Carnegie Mellon University.
Amiga-only features
At the time of its launch, AMosaic offered several features beyond the capabilities of Mosaic, thanks to the unique capabilities of the AmigaOS and existing support libraries.
The Magic User Interface (MUI) system used to construct the user interface enabled user full user-customization of fonts, colors, and background patterns.{{citation |url=http://www.mfischer.com/legacy/amosaic-paper/intro.html |title=Introduction |first=Michael |last=Fischer |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309000828/http://www.mfischer.com/legacy/amosaic-paper/intro.html |archive-date=9 March 2012 |access-date=2 April 2011 |url-status=dead }}
AMosaic makes use of AmigaOS Datatypes for its external and inline image decoding,{{citation |url=http://www.mfischer.com/legacy/amosaic-paper/datatypes.html |title=The AmigaOS Datatypes System |first=Michael |last=Fischer |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309000908/http://www.mfischer.com/legacy/amosaic-paper/datatypes.html |archive-date=9 March 2012 |access-date=2 April 2011 |url-status=dead }} making it simple for users to extend the list of supported image types by installing the appropriate operating system plugin.
An ARexx inter-application communication interface was built into AMosaic,{{citation |url=http://www.mfischer.com/legacy/amosaic-paper/rexx.html |title=The Rexx Interface in Amiga Mosaic |first=Michael |last=Fischer |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309000917/http://www.mfischer.com/legacy/amosaic-paper/rexx.html |archive-date=9 March 2012 |access-date=2 April 2011 |url-status=dead }} allowing simple scripting and transferring of data between AMosaic and other software. Using ARexx, users can write external scripts to ask AMosaic to retrieve a page and return it in ASCII format, or AMosaic can execute a script calling an external bookmark tracking program.
Uses the networking software DNet, AmiTCP 3.0b2, or AS225r2.
== Publicity ==
AMosaic was featured as the cover story in the March, 1995 issue of Amiga World magazine.[http://amr.abime.net/issue_1537 Amiga World Volume 11 No 3 (March 1995) - Amiga Magazine Rack]
The original developers, Michael Fischer, Michael Meyer, and Michael Witbrock, co-wrote User Extensibility in Amiga Mosaic, which was presented by Michael Witbrock at the Second International World Wide Web Conference in Chicago, Illinois, October 17–20, 1994.{{cite web |last1=Fischer |first1=Michael |last2=Meyer |first2=Michael |last3=Witbrock |first3=Michael |title=User Extensibility in Amiga Mosaic |url=https://thewebconf.org/www2/Proceedings/DDay/witbrock/amosaic/index.html |access-date=24 March 2021}}
System requirements
- AmigaOS 2.0 or greater{{cite web |title=Installing Amiga Mosaic |url=http://www.mfischer.com/legacy/amosaic/Installation.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130911042222/http://www.mfischer.com/legacy/amosaic/Installation.html |archive-date=11 September 2013 |access-date=7 June 2013 |url-status=dead }}
- AmiTCP 3.0 beta 2 or AS225 Release 2, or DNET
- Magic User Interface (MUI) 3.8
- Workbench 3 users need the ZGIF DataType to decode inlined GIF images
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Portal|Amiga}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20041029212209if_/http://www.uni-giessen.de/faq/archiv/amiga.amosaic-faq/msg00000.html AMosaic FAQ]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927122332if_/http://ftp.actrix.co.nz/historical/amiga/comm/net/ AMosaic 1.2 and 2.0 pre-release downloads]
- [http://aminet.net/package/comm/tcp/MosaicSrc AMosaic 2.0 pre-release source code download]
{{AmigaOS}}
{{Gopher clients}}
{{Web browsers}}
{{Early web browsers}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amosaic}}