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One of Architronic's unstated goals has been to encourage the electronic exchange of ideas within the architectural community. The electronic format presents many challenges, each giving us an opportunity to reevaluate how our journal would proceed. One difficulty was reaching users with a variety of computer experience, each using their preferred platform (Unix, DOS, and Macintosh). A second problem was that e-mail discouraged the use of formatting. Considering these two factors, we were left using generic ASCII text. (This prevented the use of underlines, italics, and other standards we have come to expect from the simplest of word processors.) A third problem arose after the first distribution of Architronic: Many email accounts were extremely limited in size, prohibiting the distribution of the journal except in small pieces. One solution was to use the archive as a means of distribution, and to introduce a client/server (Gopher). (Client/servers allow a client to access files on a server without the need to have the files reside on the local host.) This improved accessibility but still limited us regarding formatted text and images imbedded in the text. Recently, however, a new network tool has been introduced to address these issues plus more.
The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois has developed a new client/server for the World-Wide-Web named Mosaic. Mosaic has been developed to run on X Windows Systems, Apple Macintoshes, and Microsoft Windows. The draw back is that the user must have direct Internet access -- which excludes the use of modems, unless they are familiar with using a Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP) connection.
Mosaic provides a unified interface to accessing linked data on Internet servers via may protocols: Archie, Gopher, Wide Area Information Servers, FTP (File Transfer Protocol), Telnet and Network News Transfer Protocol. Through a Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) it also provides a means of creating a formatted document with hypertext links and imbedded images. This allows the user to click on a highlighted word or icon to move to other articles, or to link to external programs. This allows the program to support additional graphics (at higher resolutions), video sequences, postscript previewers, and audio.
Mosaic is rapidly changing the essence of networking, making exchange much more facile. Its ease of use promises to have a positive impact on the future of information exchange. Now, one can access Architronic as easily as one references a print journal. Both images and text can appear on the same screen without a need to download any files first.
Architronic is currently in the experimental stages of using Mosaic and can be accessed through Kent's homepage: