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MacBASIC 1.0, A Complete Mac 128K IDE In 53K!

Posted by: Snial on 2026-09-25 14:51:31

Hi folks,

I've gone down a bit of a rabbit hole thanks to @bigmessowires Quiz Application project for a Mac 128K! My inner Pedantic-Man unveiled his super-power and convinced me that for real authenticity, the application should be developed on an actual Mac 128K (or an emulator for it).

It's amazingly hard to actually develop an app on a Mac 128K. Almost all development was done on a Lisa.

However, I know that it could be done using MacASM, since that's only about 26kB and I've already used it to develop an earlier program, MiniMorse! But it's very masochistic. So, then I thought MacPascal would be a reasonable compromise, because it does run on an original Mac and under System 1.x. However, there are two problems. Firstly, you need to use INLINE definitions to gain access to the ToolBox and there isn't a full list of them in the standard distribution. Secondly, it really doesn't have much RAM left for coding so I'm not sure whether it could fit, despite Big Mess 'O' Wires' quiz app being a small app and having the questions in a neat resource format.

However, because I was playing with a Mac 128K emulator via Infinite Mac, I noticed that it also had a copy of MacBASIC 0.336. Now, MacBASIC has a really interesting history, as recounted in Folklore.org:

Folklore.org: MacBasic

www.folklore.org

They worked on it for 2-3 years, building a viable BASIC IDE that could create real Mac applications only to have it killed by Microsoft blackmailing Apple to use their Macintosh MSBASIC over a continued MS licence for Apple ][ BASIC. Bill Atkinson was furious and the core developer, Donn Denman was so distraught he ended up crashing his car!

But the 0.336 version was widely distributed, and somehow the 1.0 version also escaped and is on Macintosh Garden. There's an interesting review of it from BYTE Magazine, which gives you a flavour of the language (it's very comprehensive). Importantly, it's only 48kB and only about 32kB is resident!

I couldn't see a proper manual anywhere, so I used ResEdit to analyse the CODE segments to find out if all the commands are there. And they are... and there's a lot of them! Segment 5 contains the language commands, all 261 of them...

PRINT	STR$	DIV	FOR	NEXT	GOTO	IF	LET
PERFORM	END	=	<>	>=	<=	><	=>
=<	>	<	≠	≤	≥	INFINITY	∞
NAN	+	-	ERASE	CLEARWINDOW	PENMODE	SIZE	ASK
DO	STOP	FRAME	PAINT	&	BTNWAIT	REM	SHOWDIGITS
DIM	LEN	LEFT$	RIGHT$	MID$	ASC	CHR$	TIME$
DATE$	?	ELSE	THEN	GOSUB	RETURN	POP	ENDIF
LOOP	DATA	READ	RESTORE	SET	DEF	INPUT	OPEN
CLOSE	WINDOW	POS	HPOS	PLOT	VAL	RECT	ROUNDRECT
ROUND	PENPOS	PEN	PATTERN	BLACK	WHITE	GRAY	LTGRAY
DKGRAY	MENU	CONTROL	ABS	ATN	MOUSEB	MOUSEB~	MOUSEH
MOUSEV	COS	EXP	INT	LOG	PI	π	∏
RND	SGN	SIN	SQR	TAN	POS	NOT	AND
FREE	VAL	ERR	KBD	TYP	FORMAT$	INVERT	TO
PENSIZE	PENNORMAL	OR	STEP	WITH	EXIT	TRUNC	^
COMPOUND	ANNUITY	LOGP1	EXPM	TICKCOUNT	GPRINT	FONTSIZE	FONT
PROGRAM	INKEY$	IS	CASE	SELECT	ENDSELECT	RANDOMIZE	WHEN
ENDWHEN	IGNORE	UPSHIFT$	DOWNSHIFT$	TRUE	FALSE	TOOL	TOOLBOX
GTEXTFACE	GTEXTMODE	WRITE	REWRITE	DELETE	LOCK	UNLOCK	RENAME
SETFILEINFO	GETFILEINFO	THERE	MISSING	EOF	EOR	OUTIN	TEXT
BINY	SEQUENTIAL	STREAM	RECSIZE	APPEND	SAME	BEGIN	RECORD
LINE	OUTPUTWINDOW	OPTION	COLLATE	NATIVE	STANDARD	TAB	SOUND
SOUNDOVER	STOPSOUND	TONES	REMAINDER	INT	SCALB	LOGB	COPYSIGN
NEXTSINGLE	NEXTDOUBLE	NEXTEXTENDED	LOG2	EXP2	RANDOM	SIGNNUM	RELATION
CLASSSINGLE	CLASSDOUBLE	CLASSCOMP	CLASSEXTENDED	PROCENTRY	PROCEXIT	EXCEPTION	HALT
PRECISION	ENVIRONMENT	INVALID	UNDERFLOW	OVERFLOW	DIVBYZERO	INEXACT	TONEAREST
UPWARD	DOWNWARD	TOWARDZERO	EXTPRECISION	DBLPRECISION	SGLPRECISION	NAN	QNAN
INFINITE	ZERONUM	NORMALNUM	DENORMALNUM	GREATERTHAN	LESSTHAN	EQUALTO	UNORDERED
TABWIDTH	PICSIZE	MOD	SUB	CALL	FUNCTION	AT	GTEXTNORMAL
GETVOLINFO	GETFILENAME$	GETVOLNAME$	MAIN	SCALE	LOCATION	DOCUMENT	OUTPUT
DEVCONTROL	DEVSTATUS	ATEOF	EOF	CURPOS	EJECT!	SETVOL!	UNDIM
TOSCREEN	TOWINDOW	CREATE	RESOURCE	MENU	MENUITEM	WINDOWITEM	MENUID
ADDRESS	INDIRECT	HIGHWORD	LOWWORD	VALPOINTER

Amongst the most interesting commands are the use of Mac characters like '≤', '≥' and '≠' as synonyms for "<=", ">=" and "<>". There's also "NATIVE".

However, the really neat stuff follows in segment 6, which contains (as far as I can tell), the complete list of ToolBox calls!

DISPOSECONTROL	SETCTITLE	GETCTITLE	HIDECONTROL	SHOWCONTROL	DRAWCONTROLS	HILITECONTROL	MOVECONTROL
DRAGCONTROL	SIZECONTROL	SETCTLVALUE	SETCTLMIN	SETCTLMAX	SETCREFCON	DISPOSEWINDOW	CLOSEWINDOW/
SETWTITLE	GETWTITLE	SELECTWINDOW	HIDEWINDOW	SHOWWINDOW	HILITEWINDOW	BRINGTOFRONT	SENDBEHIND
DRAWGROWICON	MOVEWINDOW	SIZEWINDOW	INVALRECT	VALIDRECT	INVALRGN	VALIDRGN	SETWREFCON
SETWINDOWPIC	DISPOSEMENU	APPENDMENU	ADDRESMENU	INSERTRESMENU	INSERTMENU	DRAWMENUBAR	DELETEMENU
CLEARMENUBAR	SETMENUBAR	HILITEMENU	SETITEM	GETITEM	DISABLEITEM	ENABLEITEM	CHECKITEM
SETITEMICON	GETITEMICON	SETITEMSTYLE	GETITEMSTYLE	SETITEMMARK	GETITEMMARK	SETMENUFLASH	CALCMENUSIZE
FLASHMENUBAR	OPENPORT	INITPORT	CLOSEPORT	SETPORT	GETPORT	GRAFDEVICE	SETPORTBITS
PORTSIZE	MOVEPORTTO	SETORIGIN	SETCLIP	GETCLIP	CLIPRECT	BACKPAT	INITCURSOR
SETCURSOR	HIDECURSOR	SHOWCURSOR	OBSCURECURSOR	SHIELDCURSOR	HIDEPEN	SHOWPEN	GETPENSTATE
SETPENSTATE	PENPAT	MOVETO	MOVE	LINETO	LINE	TEXTFONT	TEXTFACE
TEXTMODE	TEXTSIZE	SPACEEXTRA	DRAWCHAR	DRAWSTRING	DRAWTEXT	GETFONTINFO	FORECOLOR
BACKCOLOR	COLORBIT	SETRECT	OFFSETRECT	INSETRECT	UNIONRECT	PT2RECT	PTTOANGLE
FILLRECT	FILLROUNDRECT	FILLOVAL	FRAMEARC	PAINTARC	ERASEARC	INVERTARC	FILLARC
DISPOSERGN	COPYRGN	SETEMPTYRGN	SETRECTRGN	RECTRGN	OPENRGN	CLOSERGN	OFFSETRGN
INSETRGN	SECTRGN	UNIONRGN	DIFFRGN	XORRGN	FRAMERGN	PAINTRGN	ERASERGN
INVERTRGN	FILLRGN	SCROLLRECT	COPYBITS	PICCOMMENT	CLOSEPICTURE	DRAWPICTURE	KILLPICTURE
CLOSEPOLY	KILLPOLY	OFFSETPOLY	FRAMEPOLY	PAINTPOLY	ERASEPOLY	INVERTPOLY	FILLPOLY
ADDPT	SUBPT	SETPT	LOCALTOGLOBAL	GLOBALTOLOCAL	STUFFHEX	SCALEPT	MAPPT
MAPRECT	MAPRGN	MAPPOLY	NEWCONTROL	GETNEWCONTROL	GETWINDOWPIC	NEWMENU	GETMENU
GETNEWMBAR	GETMENUBAR	GETMHANDLE	NEWRGN	OPENPICTURE	OPENPOLY	NEWWINDOW	GETNEWWINDOW
FRONTWINDOW	DRAGWINDOW	GROWWINDOW	GETCREFCON	GETWREFCON	PINRECT	MENUSELECT	MENUKEY
SECTRECT	PTINRECT	EQUALRECT	EMPTYRECT	PTINRGN	RECTINRGN	EQUALRGN	EMPTYRGN
EQUALPT	GETPIXEL	TESTCONTROL	FINDCONTROL	GETCTLVALUE	GETCTLMIN	GETCTLMAX	FINDWINDOW
TRACKCONTROL	COUNTMITEMS	CHARWIDTH	STRINGWIDTH	TEXTWIDTH	RANDOM	CREATERESFILE	OPENRESFILE
CLOSERESFILE	RESERROR	CURRESFILE	HOMERESFILE	USERESFILE	COUNTTYPES	GETINDTYPE	SETRESLOAD
COUNTRESOURCES	GETINDRESOURCE	GETRESOURCE	GETNAMEDRESOURCE	LOADRESOURCE	RELEASERESOURCE	DETACHRESOURCE	ADDRESOURCE
UNIQUEID	GETRESINFO	GETRESATTRS	SETRESINFO	SETRESATTRS	CHANGEDRESOURCE	RMVERESOURCE	UPDATERESFILE
WRITERESOURCE	SETRESPURGE	GETRESFILEATTRS	SETRESFILEATTRS	PACKBITS	UNPACKBITS	ALERT	CAUTIONALERT
CLOSEDIALOG	DIALOGSELECT	DISPOSDIALOG	GETDITEM	GETITEXT	GETNEWDIALOG	ISDIALOGEVENT	MODALDIALOG
NEWDIALOG	NOTEALERT	PARAMTEXT	SELITEXT	SETDITEM	SETITEXT	STOPALERT	CLOSEDESKACC
OPENDESKACC	SYSTEMCLICK	SYSTEMEDIT	SYSTEMTASK	BUTTON	EVENTAVAIL	FLUSHEVENTS	GETMOUSE
GETNEXTEVENT	STILLDOWN	TICKCOUNT	WAITMOUSEUP	GETFNUM	GETFONTNAME	REALFONT	BLOCKMOVE
DISPOSHANDLE	DISPOSPTR	GETHANDLESIZE	GETPTRSIZE	HLOCK	HNOPURGE	HPURGE	HUNLOCK
MOREMASTERS	NEWHANDLE	NEWPTR	SETHANDLESIZE	SETPTRSIZE	DELAY	READDATETIME	SECS2DATE
SYSBEEP	UPRSTRING	DATE2SECS	PACK2	PACK3	PACK4	PACK5	PACK6
PACK7	EXITTOSHELL	UNLOADSEG	GETAPPPARMS	GETSCRAP	INFOSCRAP	LOADSCRAP	PUTSCRAP
UNLOADSCRAP	ZEROSCRAP	TEACTIVATE	TECLICK	TECOPY	TECUT	TEDEACTIVATE	TEDELETE
TEDISPOSE	TEGETTEXT	TEIDLE	TEINSERT	TEKEY	TENEW	TEPASTE	TESCROLL
TESETJUST	TESETSELECT	TESETTEXT	TEUPDATE	TEXTBOX	TECALTEXT	BITAND	BITCLR
BITNOT	BITOR	BITSET	BITSHIFT	BITTST	BITXOR	FIXMUL	FIXRATIO
FIXROUND	GETCURSOR	GETICON	GETPATTERN	GETSTRING	GETPICTURE	MUNGER	NEWSTRING
PLOTICON	SETSTRING	GETKEYS

At the moment I wouldn't know how to use these. I'm not sure how Mac BASIC expects these to be called ( function names with brackets or without as implied by the Byte article?). I don't know how all the Toolbox data structures are defined and used within Mac BASIC. But at least you can see at least nearly all the APIs are there. So that's a starting point.

Posted by: David Cook on 2026-09-25 15:16:38

No peek or poke? 😛

Yes, a manual or even some sample programs would help a lot.

Posted by: Snial on 2026-09-25 16:55:29

No peek or poke? 😛

LOL!, Nor Deek or Doke! (In BBC BASIC it's addr?offset=byte or addr!offset=longword and in QL BASIC it's PEEK_W or POKE_L variants).

Yes, a manual or even some sample programs would help a lot.

Well, the 0.336 disk has quite a few examples, but when you run some of them on version 1.0, some of the syntax has changed, so the compiler generates errors. However, the errors tell you something about what the syntax should be.

For example, in 0.336 you can type the command erase and it would clear the output window. However, in 1.0 you'd need to do clearwindow, because erase is used for things like erase rect 10,10;50,50.

What I want to do is basically (sic) bypass all the convenience commands and go straight to the toolbox. I've deduced command of the form: if toolbox button=true then ... which I used to write a bit of code that waits for a button press, like the command btnwait, but done the 'proper' way. Also toolbox textsize(9) passes syntax (whereas toolbox textsize 9 doesn't, which means it expects brackets for parameters), but if I follow it with a print it doesn't change anything.

toolbox moveto(10,5)
toolbox lineto(30,40)
pass syntax and work as expected!
toolbox drawstring("A String") works, so I can pass strings and they're treated as pascal strings.
I think it's time for bed, haven't figured out how to pass (or return) structured data. I can do:
dim r%(4)
toolbox setrect(@r%,50,50,80,90)
toolbox framearc(@r%,10,90)

And it'll draw what I intend, however, it then throws an out-of-memory error and clicking OK or whatever quickly leads to a bomb and a reset. So, it's partly right. Without the @ it doesn't think the parameters are correct, but I guess @r% returns something like 0; then it writes to a rectangle at 0 and so a crash follows shortly.

Posted by: Forrest on 2026-09-25 19:12:10

Looks interesting. I had not heard of MacBasic before, though I got into Macs a few years later with a MacPlus emulator SpectreGCR on my Atari ST running System 6.0.5.

Posted by: Snial on 2026-09-26 02:54:25

Looks interesting. I had not heard of MacBasic before, though I got into Macs a few years later with a MacPlus emulator SpectreGCR on my Atari ST running System 6.0.5.

I had heard of it, but always confused it with the Microsoft Macintosh Basic which was deemed to be pretty poor.

When the Mac came out (1984), Pascal was all the rage and given that the ToolBox had a Pascal ABI, it was natural to dismiss Basic too. I’ve also had a little dabble with FastBasic on an Atari ST emulator as well as looking at a few Archimedes applications in BBC Basic.

The lack of proper structures in either makes programming substantial GUI apps clumsy and convoluted.

What I’m curious about in this case is whether there are any not utterly painful IDEs that will both run on a Mac 128K and allow people to develop proper Mac apps.

A bit more testing on MacBASIC shows that I can’t even do more than dim p%(7300) without running out of RAM. This implies about 14.6kB is free. That’s less than the free space on a 16K ZX81.

It all adds up to the sense that GUIs are incredibly resource hungry. Relatively sophisticated programming was possible using BASIC on much smaller, 8-bit computers, but not this.

However, MacBASIC 1.0 could be seen to be quite big at 85kB (not 53kB as the thread states-that must be v 0.336). A leaner approach, using a more traditional version of BASIC (perhaps 16kB-24kB), but with DIY ToolBox access (like MacPascal) could have made enough of a difference.

Posted by: cheesestraws on 2026-09-26 03:19:44

No peek or poke? 😛

presumably that's what INDIRECT and ADDRESS are for here?

But I'm generally in favour of the BBC BASIC approach to memory access, PEEK and POKE just feel grim to use after that

Posted by: bigmessowires on 2026-09-26 10:06:01

Nice, I'm glad I was able to serve as some kind of inspiration. I never knew it was possible to write a full-fledged Macintosh GUI application in BASIC. I'll be very interested to see what you come up with.

Posted by: Daxeria on 2026-09-26 11:14:47

Yes, a manual or even some sample programs would help a lot.

All three of the third-party MacBASIC books that saw print have been preserved as PDFs in VintageApple.org's Mac programming library:

# 13 — Introduction to Macintosh BASIC (1984) by Scott Kamins, published by Hayden Books
# 46 — Macintosh BASIC (1985) by Richard Norling, published by Osborne/McGraw-Hill
# 86 — The Macintosh BASIC Handbook (1984) by Thomas Blackadar & Jonathan Kamin, published by Sybex

Posted by: Snial on 2026-09-26 14:12:19

All three of the third-party MacBASIC books that saw print have been preserved as PDFs in VintageApple.org's Mac programming library:

# 13 — Introduction to Macintosh BASIC (1984) by Scott Kamins, published by Hayden Books
# 46 — Macintosh BASIC (1985) by Richard Norling, published by Osborne/McGraw-Hill
# 86 — The Macintosh BASIC Handbook (1984) by Thomas Blackadar & Jonathan Kamin, published by Sybex

Yes indeed. I did have a look for MacBASIC manuals, and earlier today @Phipli pointed me to them! I have a much better idea of how to write a ToolBox app. I think the next step is to convert a few Macintosh Pascal Programming Primer applications to MacBASIC (or even my miniMorse Application!).

I think your profile icon is very cool!

It reminds me of all the 8-bit isometric video games from the 80s.

Posted by: David Cook on 2026-09-26 23:44:39

All three of the third-party MacBASIC books that saw print have been preserved as PDFs in VintageApple.org's Mac programming library:

# 13 — Introduction to Macintosh BASIC (1984) by Scott Kamins, published by Hayden Books
# 46 — Macintosh BASIC (1985) by Richard Norling, published by Osborne/McGraw-Hill
# 86 — The Macintosh BASIC Handbook (1984) by Thomas Blackadar & Jonathan Kamin, published by Sybex

Thank you!