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The Macintosh Basic Handbook 1984

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The Macintosh BASIC Handbook is a 1984 book by Thomas Blackadar and Jonathan Kamin, published by SYBEX, Berkeley. ISBN 0-89588-257-4, Library of Congress card number 84-72624; the scan is of the first printing.[1] The Library of Congress record gives the extent as "ca. 750 p.": the book is laid out as an A-to-Z reference and its pages are not numbered in sequence.[2]

The book documents Apple's own Macintosh BASIC, not Microsoft BASIC. The authors thank Kevin Jones and Ed Spiegel of Apple for helping them "spread the word about their wonderful BASIC language".[3] Apple cancelled Macintosh BASIC in November 1985, when it renewed Microsoft's Applesoft BASIC licence, so the language this book describes was never sold as a product.[4]

It has an entry for every Macintosh BASIC command, function and operator (189 keywords in 164 entries), and 39 entries for the 54 toolbox routines the authors found most useful. Each entry gives syntax, description, sample programs, applications and notes; the book has more than 150 sample programs and more than 40 application programs.[5] The copyright page warns: "The toolbox interface is not an official feature of Macintosh BASIC. The inclusion of this information does not imply an endorsement of this feature by Apple Computer, Inc. Misuse of toolbox calls can lead to serious system errors."[1]

Contents

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From the book's table of contents.[6]

  • Acknowledgments
  • The Entries at a Glance
  • Reference Guide to Major Programming Concepts
  • How to Use the Macintosh BASIC Handbook
  • Introduction: An Overview of Macintosh BASIC
  • The Macintosh BASIC Commands, Including the Macintosh Toolbox (alphabetical entries)
  • Appendix A: ASCII Codes
  • Appendix B: Error Codes
  • Appendix C: System Constants
  • Appendix D: Summary of Toolbox Commands (syntax of more than 300 toolbox routines callable from Macintosh BASIC)
  • Appendix E: Index to Application Programs

What this book does not contain

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It is a programming reference. It has no service procedures, schematics or electrical data for the Macintosh; Apple's repair documentation is in Category:Apple Service Source. The hosted scan is 848 PDF pages, covers included.

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Download: The_Macintosh_Basic_Handbook_1984.pdf (55.7 MB)

References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Thomas Blackadar and Jonathan Kamin, The Macintosh BASIC Handbook (SYBEX, 1984), title page and copyright page (PDF pp. 3-4).
  2. ↑ Open Library, The Macintosh BASIC handbook, record OL2875265M, from Library of Congress catalogue data. Retrieved 2026-09-30.
  3. ↑ Blackadar and Kamin, The Macintosh BASIC Handbook, Acknowledgments (PDF p. 6).
  4. ↑ Andy Hertzfeld, "MacBasic", Folklore.org. Retrieved 2026-09-30.
  5. ↑ Blackadar and Kamin, The Macintosh BASIC Handbook, How to Use the Macintosh BASIC Handbook (PDF pp. 11-13).
  6. ↑ Blackadar and Kamin, The Macintosh BASIC Handbook, Table of Contents (PDF p. 7).
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