The C128 has two TOD (time-of-day) clocks. Color 64 uses only one of them for, you guessed it, the time of day. It uses what is called the jiffy-clock for keeping track of time on-line or idle time. The jiffy-clock, however, is not very accurate. Centipede uses the second TOD clock to keep the jiffy-clock accurate. Thus we have the accuracy of a TOD clock, with the ease of use of the jiffy-clock.

I haven't done anything on it yet, but I hope to use the extra 48k of those with 64k of video RAM for the local buffer. Your users have a buffer in their term program, why shouldn't you? V128 uses whatever space is left over in the BASIC program area for the buffer, and

Centipede will continue to do so for those of us with only 16k of video RAM.

SwiftLink support will be included in the basic package.

Also in planning, is BURST mode reading of SEQ files on Burst compatible drives, and direct access to the SCSI drive on Lt. Kernal systems. Both offer incredible speed increases. Oh.. also for downloading files.

A 26th screen line will be added at the bottom, containing a little information on the current user on-line. This will be in addition to the (modified) SysOp View Panel with full detail that you can bring up at almost any time without notice to the user on-line.

Centipede will not be running in 40c mode. Users can of course still call in 40c and Centipede will use a simulated 40c screen, but still be in RGB mode. Supporting two screens creates a small slow-down and puts some memory out of use, as well as creating other programming headaches. I've yet to find anyone to continue running V128 on a composite screen for a great length of time, so I'm dropping that.

Split screen chat mode is of course in here, and I'm working on a full-screen editor.

File transfer protocol ML files are self-serving. What I mean by that is that they handle any details specific to their own protocol internally, so that you can mix and match any file xfer protocols into your bbs, without any modification to BASIC. If you don't want to run all the protocols, you don't have to, and any new protocols can be added simply by copying them to your HD and adding them in the Protocol Maintenance area.

Text can be output to the modem by way of a modified basic PRINT command. Instead of Color 64's a$="text":sysc(0) to output a string, you may use [print"text" instead. The old Color 64 commands still work, but the new Centipede way gives us the full flexibility of the print command, including PRINT USING formatting.

Color 64's sysc(5) and sysc(8) (input strings from disk and modem) are supplemented to put the results in any string you want, rather than just tx$. To read a complete SEQ file into the a$() array: a=0 : do until st : a=a+1 : sysc(8) : =a$(a) : loop

One overlay and up to three levels of modules may be in memory at a time. So the list of files in memory may look like: "ovl.main", "mdl.upload", "mdl.ud-dir". (I couldn't find any example using all four levels, but it's nice to have it available.) You may also have two modules of the same level in memory at once using a technique of 'hiding' one of them. This allows you to sort-of 'gosub' to a routine in another module. Such as uploading from the e-mail module.

Which brings me to private files transfers. You 'e-mail' a private file to another user, by attaching an upload to a piece of mail. A user may have any number of private files at a time. They are held or deleted with the e-mail they are attached to.

Files can be copied between two drives or the same one, by opening the two files, and executing a single SYS call.

A SYS call lets you set the cursor at any line and column on the screen. The ML finds the shortest path there in c/g, or pops you directly there for ANSI callers.

Another SYS lets you scan a file for a specific character.

Centipede has four individual levels of dim and variable killers.

Translation routines for ASCII, Commodore color/graphics, and ANSI are separate ML files. New ones can be easily added.

Overall variable structure has been changed a bit. Many individual variables from Color 64 have been moved into one of two arrays: d%() and d$(). Using d$(2) may not be as clear as pw$ for the user's password, but it's a trade off for memory and speed. BASIC's ROM code can calculate the exact memory location of an array index much faster than it can do a sequential search through every variable name in search of an individual variable. Continuing the same example, d$(2) has a three-byte overhead in the variable space, while pw$ uses seven! More commonly used variables such as lv for the user's level were left alone.

There is a maximum of 15 message bases, with 26 categories in each.

Create your own menus. Sample ones will be included as starting points. Starting with the main menu and standard sysop menu, you can define every hotkey to run whatever routine you like, including other menus! Hence, sub menus. Each hotkey has the following attributes: command name, access level, killer type (dim or variable), graphics requirements, filename of module or overlay, routine number in that module, and new program and support files directories to use in that routine.

Scripts of up to 25 lines use the same attributes for loading modules as menus, plus can display SEQ files and display and respond to simple Y/N prompts.

Directory locations, as mentioned above, can be modified from their defaults from menu options. Each location is defined by it's device number (8-15), file prefix, and one or two disk commands. The prefix option is particularly useful for CMD owners, who can create prefixes such as "3:/msgbase2/" for the second message base on partition #3, in the subdirectory msgbase2. You can also send the two commands of "cp3" and "cd//msgbase2", but I'm told the prefix method is faster.

Users can set their own experience levels between: Beginner, Knowledgeable, and Expert. This effects things such as the detail of help automatically shown at menus and prompts.

Users may setup their own default message base scans to read or skip any message bases they wish, automatically.

You may lock users out of any message base or u/d category, regardless of their access level. You may also set daily time limit adjustments for each user, which will give them more or less time than normal at their access level.

Short-View file descriptions in the directory listing (up to 38 characters) offers more detail than a little 16 character file name. Users may select whether or not they wish to have them displayed. This only supplements the full detailed file descriptions in the Color 64 style.

Caller log and variables are saved right after user logs off, rather than after five minutes of idle time. At present, the idle script is only used for calling networks, and time for this script can be set between one and sixty minutes.

Screen savers are separate modules, making for easy changing screen savers. You may also select the delay for the saver to kick in, between one and fifteen minutes, or not at all.

You set multiplication factors for credits awarded for downloading and uploading. Using this, you can select whether a user gets credits right away for uploading something, or when somebody downloads their upload, or a combination of the two.

If you so setup your menus, you can allow users to flag files for download while viewing a directory listing. Up to 50 files may be flagged, from any combination of directories.

Flags indicate if your modem supports DTR, if you wish the BBS to take the modem off-hook when you are using it, and if you are using a SwiftLink. Baud rates supported are 300-4800 on the rs-232 port, and 300-38400 with SwiftLink.

You may select whether or not you want Menu Phrases shown for each menu, and phrases are accessed faster than V128's Prompt Macros are.

There is built-in support for Network 64 v1.26, and ComLink.

You may enter a line of any miscellaneous information about a user in their account record. There is also a field for a real name, if you allow handles, for possible support of other networks in the future that demand real names.

You may use a local mode password to keep house guest(s) from getting into areas of the BBS they should not be poking around in.

Will use the proper terminology of "RETURN" or "ENTER" depending on the user's graphics mode.

Menu hotkeys and levels when reading messages are customizable: Quit, reply in public, private reply, reread previous, reread last, skip forward, skip backward, jump thread, backup a thread, jump category, non-stop read, post in other thread or begin new one, scratch, edit, move, scratch thread, change thread subject, download message.

Mailbox e-mail reading hotkeys are also customizable: Edit user's account (level 9 only), reread same, backup one, delete, hold, reply, download, quit.

And finally, the message editor commands: Attach a file (e-mail only), quote from reference msg, upload msg, full-screen edit, continue line edit, clear msg, list lines, edit lines, delete lines, insert lines, send, abort.

There are up to 15 U/D categories with up to 26 directories in each. Each directory has the attributes: name, disk location, allow downloads, allow uploads, access level.

Caller log is more flexible than Color 64. The log for the current call is stored in a 'hidden' variable array, so as to not create any variable conflicts. The permanent log is stored in a REL file, of which you define the length. The REL format allows for fast searches and viewing in either direction. It also saves memory.

Support for dual-lined system on multiplexed Lt. Kernal. (And CMD HD if CMD ever makes a real multiplexer.)

Re-written, faster, message threading, message regeneration, and u/d directory regeneration routines than Color 64 or V128.

File transfer protocols: ASCII, XMODEM Checksum, CRC, and 1k, YMODEM and Ymodem-Batch, and Punter and Mutli-Punter.

In addition to the old Color 64 message subject for a thread (now called a thread name), the users may change the message TOPIC field for each message. Message headers in the file contain only the data. The actual header format is created via BASIC, and can be modified. Two columns are used for 80c users.

A modem module handles initializing, answering, hanging up, on/off hook, baud rates, and other modem commands. Specialized modules can be created for each modem type.

Date and Time can be read from a CMD device, or entered manually.

Variables can be stored in program form and quickly loaded (much faster than reading from a SEQ file) and can be easily modified by putting the changes in an array and GOSUB'ing to a routine. For those who are familiar with them, it is similar to .INI files under Microsoft Windows.

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