C programming for Mac Classic

[Carpallo]

Hi everyone!

I have an old Mac Classic and I would like to program it in C. I have downloaded some C compilers as Consular Mac C, Lightspeed C and Think C 3.0 but I am mostly a PC user, how can I open this files in Windows and save them in 3,5" floppy disks?

Do you know if they can work in a Mac Classic and which could be the best?

I have found a book in Amazon about Lightspeed C, Macintosh Programming Primer: Inside the Toolbox Using THINK's Lightspeed C. Does somebody know if it could be useful? Is there some book that you can recommend?

Thanks in advance

 

[CodeMonkeyZA]

I have the Macintosh Programming Primer, and I found it to be very informative. It really holds your hand when it comes to using the Toolbox, using ResEdit, and they have complete code examples that you can type out and change if you want. If you have previous programming experience it might go a little slow, but it's worth reading everything.

If you want to do application programming, I think this would be a great place to start.

 

[Scott Squires]

As for getting the tools onto your Mac: You need a floppy drive (USB is fine) and HFVExplorer. You can create a disk image in HFVExplorer, copy the files onto it, then write it to a floppy.

 

[Carpallo]

Hi CodeMonkeyZA!

First, thanks a lot for the information. I am a complete newbie, so when you talk about Toolbox and ResEdit, are these only related to Lightspeed C or to general MacIntosh programming? I have some programming experience in C but the book could be very useful. Are there any other books worthwhile? 

The file is in .sit format and I don't know how to open it!!! :-/

 

[Carpallo]

Hi Anthon!

Thank you for the information too! :beige:

Do you know if I can save files to floppy disks with the .image extension using this program?

 

[CodeMonkeyZA]

If those words are unknown to you, then that book is right up your alley. They explain everything from the beginning without assuming prior knowledge from the reader (besides of course some programming knowledge). I really think it is a good starting point for getting into the whole swing of things.

When it comes to .sit files... I don't know what the best method is, but I can tell you what worked for me:

First I formatted a floppy disk on my SE/30 (so you on your Classic), then, using a USB floppy drive, I used dd on my MacBook (it also works in Linux of course) to make an image of the floppy. Next, I mounted the newly created image into Mini vMac. I then used ImportFl (it's available on the Mini vMac website) to copy the .sit file into Mini vMac. Then I simply dragged the .sit file into the mounted floppy, and wrote the floppy image back to the physical floppy (again using the dd command on the command line). Just make sure that your .sit file will fit on the floppy!

I really don't know if this is the best way, or the simplest, but this is how I started out, and how I got programs on my SE/30 in the beginning.

.image files should be directly writable to the floppy using the dd command (given that it is less than 1.4Mb) as far as I know. What I usually do after downloading a .image file, is to mount it in Mini vMac first, to see if the image is readable.

I really hope this helps!

EDIT:

Sorry, I forgot to answer your other question. Resedit is a separate application that you will have to get on your Mac if you want to do application programming. It helps with the design of windows and such for your application. The Toolbox, as it is called, is a set of system routines that you can use in your programs. They are stored on ROM so there's nothing you have to install there

 

[Carpallo]

Thank you, awesome information.

I have a lot of things to try... Thanks a lot!