McBasic™Get McBasic™ ↗Start with a working application
Learn the shortest useful cycle: open a project, understand the Form, change one behavior, Check and Run.
Before you start#
McBasic™ will be distributed through the Mac App Store. Until a store listing is available, this site does not offer an installer or an invented download link. The lessons assume you already have a working McBasic™ build. See availability for that distinction.
Download a lesson’s complete project into a folder you can write to, then extract the archive. Open the .mcbproj package, or the .mcproj manifest in a legacy folder project, not a loose .bas file. See project storage for the current package format. The project ties together code, Form layouts, resources and database migrations.
Begin in the Welcome window#
Launch McBasic™, then choose Open a Project… for a downloaded lesson or Open a Sample… to make a practice copy. The main IDE opens only after a project is selected. Use Shift–Command–1 to return to Welcome.
Find the four things you will change#
| Surface | What it owns | Your first action |
|---|---|---|
| Project navigator | Forms, modules, resources and project configuration | Select the startup Form. |
| Designer | Control hierarchy, geometry and initial properties | Select txtName. |
| Inspector / event editor | The selected object’s properties and event bindings | Find the name and the Click binding of cmdGreet. |
| Code editor | BASIC procedures and shared state | Open cmdGreet_Click. |
Use the component’s Name in code. Caption is text shown to your user; changing Caption does not rename the object.
Use a short feedback cycle#
- Save after a coherent change.
- Run Check and read the first relevant diagnostic. Fixing an early declaration or binding error often removes later errors.
- Run the project only after it checks successfully.
- Try the normal path, empty input and repeated activation.
- Stop the app before making the next structural change.
Build your first result#
Follow Build your first Mac app. It includes every Inspector value, the exact event bindings, both complete Form source files and a checklist that covers empty input and the second window. Continue with input validation before adding a database.
Keep a known-good point#
Keep the project’s source files in Git. Commit a working baseline before changing the Form hierarchy or adding a dependency. Generated output is reproducible; your BASIC, layouts, migrations and resource declarations are the important history.
git status --short
git add MyApp.mcproj Forms Modules Resources Database
git commit -m "Add validated customer entry"20f4bfed6b · Build manifest