C-Net DS2: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 22:59, 7 February 2008

Revision as of 15:53, 7 May 2008

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'''C-Net DS2''' (Developers System, Second Generation) was a full featured, single-line, [[Bulletin board system]] (BBS) software system released in [[1986]] for the [[Commodore 64]] microcomputer. The DS2 system was notable in that its authors proved that it was possible to perform significant and useful serious computing tasks on a hardware platform with such severely limited resources that even the manufacturer called it only a "game machine".

The Commodore-64 was a simple computer, based on a [[MOS Technology 6510|Motorola 65106502]] [[8-bit]] [[microprocessor]], with 64 kilobytes of [[RAM]], only 38k of which was available for program text and variables that could be used by the built-in [[BASIC programming language]] interpreter. Nevertheless, several different BBS programs were developed (including DS2) by various different independent programmers (mostly hobbyists not affiliated with any large software publisher) that enabled a System Operator ([[SysOp]]) run a single-user at a time, multiple member online community supporting: Threaded topical discussions; on-line gaming; information reference library; live chat mode with the console operator; file-sharing library; and the ability to create customized user experiences in BASIC, thus the Developers System title.

From an engineering standpoint, C-Net DS2 was remarkable in its use of [[Machine language]] modules, early multitasking technology, relocatable code, and modular program overlays. Although the user experience was entirely text-based and non-graphical, fast performance could be attained through the use of memory expansion modules, [[IEEE-488]] interface hard drives, and modem speeds including the mid-1980s state of the art: 19,200 baud.