Where can I get resources for developing for Mac OS Classic? [closed]

Question

I recently got bored and fired up my old Mac OS Classic emulator, and then got nostalgic for writing old-school applications for the system. So, my question:

1. Where can I get dev tools that can still target Classic? (Ideally free, since this is just for fun, but if grabbing a used version of CodeWarrior on eBay is the best way to go, so be it.)
2. Where can I get at least reference materials so I don't have to guess-and-check my way around Carbon/the System Toolbox?
3. Are there any forums still running that would be open to answering old-school Mac questions for when I get stuck?

This is purely for fun, so don't worry about how impractical this is. I know.

Daltondaltonism

Metrowerks CodeWarrior 7.1 (latest for Mac OS 9) would be the canonical IDE (don't think it comes free atm). No idea about (2) and (3) although I think historical documentation about Carbon etc. should still be able to be dug up in a targeted google query. Have fun with your project! – Macrospore

There's currently a "new" copy of Inside Mac CD-ROM going for $9.99 on Amazon... – Kinswoman

Answer 1

Where can I get dev tools that can still target Classic?

You can get Apple's command-line (yes, for Classic) developer environment, MPW, from their FTP site: ftp://ftp.apple.com/developer/Tool_Chest/Core_Mac_OS_Tools/MPW_etc./MPW-GM_Images/MPW-GM.img.bin .

The shell is fairly UNIXish, except it uses a completely different punctuation alphabet. Your backslashes, bangs, and angle brackets are no good here. You generally should use Commando instead of trying to forge command lines yourself; type a command like “make” and hit option-return to get a GUI for it.

Note that you will have to run MPW inside your Classic environment; there is no native Mac OS X version. NeXT's Project Builder (now Xcode) replaced it in the move to Mac OS X.

Where can I get at least reference materials so I don't have to guess-and-check my way around Carbon/the System Toolbox?

Google search for site:developer.apple.com "inside macintosh. Good luck—they've started burying this stuff. Currently, Inside Macintosh matches will be nothing but PDF and will have titles like “IM: Text”.

There used to be web versions of Inside Macintosh, alongside the PDFs, but I think those got trashed/concealed-too-well-to-find in the last shuffle of the documentation on the site.

Carbon documentation is more available than Inside Macintosh, which refers to the old Toolbox documentation. Carbon docs will usually say whether something is only available on Mac OS X or not. If the docs don't say, the headers will. Note that Carbon requires CarbonLib on Classic, and the last version of that was 1.6.1, IIRC.

Are there any forums still running that would be open to answering old-school Mac questions for when I get stuck?

You could always ask on Stack Overflow.

Stroman

Ooh, Mac Toolbox Essentials is there! (developer.apple.com/legacy/mac/library/documentation/mac/pdf/…) Nostalgia trip! Dig the old school graphics and Pascal example code. I wonder if I still have the dead tree version in a box somewhere... – Kinswoman

As of earlier this month, Apple removed the tools from its websites. There are some mirrors but this is becoming a rare download. – Flowerpot

I'm on a similar odyssey. Looks like the links you provided are no longer valid. Any idea where else I could look? I have CW 7.1 running but I really need some toolbox documentation. – Megan

@MikeGreiner: Hopefully nobody on the “kill all old documentation” team sees this: developer.apple.com/legacy/library/documentation/macos8/… – Stroman

@PeterHosey thanks. I have seen that one. Lots of broken links but certainly better than nothing. The old HIG in particular I can't seem to find anywhere. – Megan

@PeterHosey And... it's gone. :-( – Baalbeer

An updated answer for 2020 would include Retro68, the "GCC-based cross-compilation environment for 68K and PowerPC Macs" github.com/autc04/Retro68 – Ametropia

Answer 2

There used to be web versions of Inside Macintosh, alongside the PDFs, but I think those got trashed/concealed-too-well-to-find in the last shuffle of the documentation on the site.

Nope, here is a link:

https://web.archive.org/web/20130111022302/http://developer.apple.com/legacy/mac/library/documentation/macos8/mac8.html

Contractual

Answer 3

I know almost zero about Classic Mac programming, but there's quite a few members of the 68kMLA that are programmers specifically working on Classic programs in general and even some very early System 6 apps specifically.

The developer/maintainer of Clasilla (http://www.floodgap.com/software/classilla/) Mozilla port to OS 9 is a profilic poster there and that is perhaps the last major project targeting the Classic environment, for example.

The wiki also has some programming resources, eg. http://68kmla.net/wiki/C/C%2B%2B_Programming_for_68k Not that great, but it has a download link for the MPW IDE.

Unfortunately, it is not specifically a programming forum but a Mac forum in general. Good luck though!

The site URL is http://68kmla.net

Papiamento

Answer 4

I don't know where you can get CodeWarrior.

A lot of documentation is available in the Xcode documentation reader, though much is marked "legacy" etc. You might ask questions on Apple's carbon-dev mailing list; though classic questions may be considered off-topic, the list is pretty low traffic these days. You might also want to look at the wiki at carbondev.com.

Drover

Answer 5

You can get codewarrior at Macintosh Garden. There are more recent versions on the site, but this is the version used for developing Classilla, a browser for OS 9, so it is probably good. To find the more recent versions, just search for "CodeWarrior". I downloaded it myself, so can verify that it works.

Pennywise