Questions about getting started with a Mac Plus

[HoofedEar]

Think C, Think Pascal, Chipmunk Basic, a copy of "Macintosh C Programming Primer" Vol 1 by Dave Mark.

Some HyperCard books. HyperCard is a fascinating sort of... paint your own software. Proper programming for the masses. I recommend having a play. Try getting to the level that you're making buttons with scripts at least.

Will HyperCard still work well on a 1 MB machine? I was able to confirm that my unit has its original 1 MB of RAM haha
Also is Think Pascal better than the Mac Pascal that I have currently? Same question with Chipmunk Basic vs MS Basic?

After Dark was later, Pyro is more period-correct for your Plus. Everyone forgot about this simple screen saver when flying toasters took off

Ahh cool! Period accurate is best

 

[Phipli]

Will HyperCard still work well on a 1 MB machine? I was able to confirm that my unit has its original 1 MB of RAM haha

Should do, especially older versions.

But.... you need to grab yourself 4x 1MB sticks. They can be found fairly cheap. There is no sane reason to run with only 1MB of RAM.

Perhaps ask in a new thread if anybody has some? I'm on the wrong continent sorry.

Also is Think Pascal better than the Mac Pascal that I have currently? Same question with Chipmunk Basic vs MS Basic?

I suspect so. Chipmunk Basic is more feature rich. Grab an older version for System 6 compatibility - later versions don't play ball with Sys 6.

 

[cheesestraws]

MS BASIC in general is not a very good one until late versions of QuickBASIC.

 

[Phipli]

MS BASIC in general is not a very good one until late versions of QuickBASIC.

I've always thought of Chipmunk Basic as being like BBC BASIC with Quickdraw.

 

[Crutch]

Isn’t Chipmunk Basic a command line thing? I would definitely recommend MS BASIC 2.0 over it (line numbers not required, full GUI edit tool with prettyprinting, quite nice built-in Toolbox support). MS BASIC 2.0 will run great on your Mac Plus and so will, probably, QuickBasic, which I agree is much beter.

Disclaimer: My understanding of Chipmunk Basic is limited, but I was quite fluent in MS BASIC circa 1986.

 

[s_pupp]

QuickBasic is surprisingly powerful. I used to program with it in a chemistry lab on an SE/30, then work on the project at home with my 1MB Plus.

 

[Crutch]

I think people love to poop on MS BASIC (including QuckBasic, which was really just MS BASIC 4.0) because (1) it’s Microsoft and (2) the Macintosh Basic saga is fairly sordid for those familiar (see folklore.org). These are not terrible reasons. But it was always, I thought, a solid and distinctly Mac-focused product from v2.0 onward.

It nicely simplified a decent bit of the Toolbox down to a BASIC level, and the way dynamic-length ginormous (32K) strings “just worked” was pretty nifty for 1984.

 

[cheesestraws]

I think people love to poop on MS BASIC (including QuckBasic, which was really just MS BASIC 4.0) because (1) it’s Microsoft and (2) the Macintosh Basic saga is fairly sordid for those familiar (see folklore.org).

For me and @Phipli, anyway, it's more that for those of us that were lucky enough to start by using BBC BASIC, all the MS BASIC dialects look rather anæmic and lacking in substance.

 

[Crutch]

Ah. Well sure. Let me amend my comments with “relative to other rapid-ish development options that existed on the the Mac circa 1986…”

Also that would have been a great marketing slogan. “The Less Anæmic BASIC”

 

[Phipli]

Don't worry about the heat from the RAM. If you really are, use over specified RAM and it will run cooler. The Plus likely requires 120ns RAM, so use 100ns RAM, or faster (80ns?). It will still run at 120ns (because that is just the speed the Plus runs it), but won't break a sweat doing it.

But....

These machines were run all day every day in offices. You're unlikely to be pushing it that hard.

Correction - stock is 150ns.

 

[HoofedEar]

Correction - stock is 150ns.

Is it true that I have to clip two resistors to use the 1 MB sticks? https://lowendmac.com/2016/memory-upgrades-mac-plus/
I might just wait until I have a reason to open it up, so far it's working great still!

Also, I'm having some trouble hunting down a working version of Pyro. I found a few resources online for various versions of it, but I always got the same "Application busy or missing" error when trying to use it. Same with AfterDark. Maybe it's just corrupted copies?

 

[Phipli]

Is it true that I have to clip two resistors to use the 1 MB sticks? https://lowendmac.com/2016/memory-upgrades-mac-plus/
I might just wait until I have a reason to open it up, so far it's working great still!

Also, I'm having some trouble hunting down a working version of Pyro. I found a few resources online for various versions of it, but I always got the same "Application busy or missing" error when trying to use it. Same with AfterDark. Maybe it's just corrupted copies?

It depends how old your SE is. Older ones you just snip one leg on two resistors, newer ones have badly labelled jumpers.

 

[Phipli]

Also, I'm having some trouble hunting down a working version of Pyro. I found a few resources online for various versions of it, but I always got the same "Application busy or missing" error when trying to use it. Same with AfterDark. Maybe it's just corrupted copies?

Sounds like you're probably not moving the files to the computer correctly and are damaging them. How are you copying them over?