Programs to run BASIC on older macs

[directive0]

Can anyone provide me with the name of a software title that would allow someone to write and run BASIC programs on a system 7-8 era macintosh?

 

[directive0]

Just answered my own question, so for anyone looking at similar requirements.

There was a piece of software called TrueBASIC that I'm now trying to track down. Any other suggestions are welcomed.

 

[uniserver]

there was MacBASIC... Apple released it as beta and then apple shot it down... but i hear you can still get it at the Garden etc....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBASIC

 

[directive0]

Cool I'll check that out also! Thanks!

 

[mcdermd]

there was MacBASIC... Apple released it as beta and then apple shot it down

In Andy Hertzfeld's words -

Andy Hertzfeld[/url]"]After the Mac shipped in January 1984, Donn went back to work on Basic with renewed vigor, determined to get it finished. Apple brought in some free-lance writers to write books about it (including Scot Kamins, who was a co-founder of the first Apple users group in the Bay Area). But Microsoft surprised us, and released a Basic for the Macintosh that they didn't tell us they were developing. It was everything that we expected and feared, since it was essentially console-based - it didn't really use the Mac user interface. Donn was making good progress and looked to be on track to ship in early 1985; we were excited to show the world what Basic should really look like on the Macintosh.
Unfortunately, there was another problem on the horizon. Apple's original deal with Microsoft for licensing Applesoft Basic had a term of eight years, and it was due to expire in September 1985. Apple still depended on the Apple II for the lion's share of its revenues, and it would be difficult to replace Microsoft Basic without fragmenting the software base. Bill Gates had Apple in a tight squeeze, and, in an early display of his ruthless business acumen, he exploited it to the hilt. He knew that Donn's Basic was way ahead of Microsoft's, so, as a condition for agreeing to renew Applesoft, he demanded that Apple abandon MacBasic, buying it from Apple for the price of $1, and then burying it. He also used the renewal of Applesoft, which would be obsolete in just a year or two as the Mac displaced the Apple II, to get a perpetual license to the Macintosh user interface, in what probably was the single worst deal in Apple's history, executed by John Sculley in November 1985.

 

[directive0]

HAHAHA WOW.

Smooth move, Apple.

 

[finkmac]

There's also "Chipmunk Basic"

MacBasic only works well on early System Software versions, like 1-4… It has problems with 6 and later.

 

[directive0]

Thanks fink, I'll check that out too!

 

[MinerAl]

I used to use Chipmunk Basic. Programmed a simple bell system for the junior high school at which I worked in 2001. As far as I know, there's still an LCIII on a shelf in their library ringing the class bells.

 

[volvo242gt]

Looks like there's an iOS version of Chipmunk BASIC called HotPaw BASIC. Installed that on my iPhone 4s...

-J

 

[Bunsen]

http://mdfs.net/Software/BBCBasic/Mac/

v.3 "This version has functions to interface with the apple GUI."