The extraction of information from the increasingly large mass of data spewed forth from any flow cytometric analysis requires a computer program with tools appropriate for the type of experiment. In addition to the standard display and statistics extraction requirements, such a program may also need to handle specialist tasks like calculating ratios of parameters (for ratiometric fluorochromes like INDO-1), plotting time courses or calculating fluorescence energy transfer. It has always been our view that this can only be guaranteed if the program is developed in-house, specifically for in-house requirements.
In the face of the inexorable move towards distributed computing, it became clear that WEASEL, the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute's flow cytometry data analysis computer program, which was written for MicroVAX (TM), would need to be ported to the Macintosh systems which have become this institute's standard workstations. However, recent developments have seen an influx of "IBM compatible" PCs into the WEHI workplace. Also, the majority of home computers are PCs. Therefore, rather than compounding the effort by re-writing for every possible computer system, a single, "platform-independent" version has been constructed using the Java(TM) language.
Having embarked on the porting, it seemed opportune to consider the wider context of the program's operation. Three possible modes of operation, defined by the relative proximities of data, program and operator interface, may be identified. These are 1. the "workstation" mode, where data, program and display all reside on a single workstation, 2. the "server" mode, where the data is stored remotely but the program and display are on a local workstation, and 3. a "network" mode where both program and data are remote and the local hardware only handles display and operator input. In these models, the term "remote" may mean intra-institute, implying communication by local area network, or home-to-institute with communication by telephone line modem. In network mode, an additional tool required to support the analysis may be an X-Windows server application or a web browser. Each of these has been shown to function effectively over either communication medium.