McBasic™Get McBasic™ ↗What changes for you, with current limitations called out explicitly.
Linux x64 and ARM64 join the export targets. The first Linux runtime includes windowed menus, dialogs, clipboard, URL opening and PDF-viewer report handoff. Start with the Linux support matrix and export checklist.
Welcome and Help offer a direct route to the McBasic™ community. The website keeps the invitation on its Community page, alongside the documentation and manual.
Project Settings accepts a declared application icon resource; VB6 IconForm imports can retain an ICO. Read the format and target rules.
The five-second Free Edition splash is used for exported applications and Run/Debug. Run uses isolated temporary output and Compact publishing receives additional pruning.
Settings surfaces validation and key-storage failures and confirms a successful Save. Endpoint handling accepts the supported base-path forms. Use the LM Studio setup guide to check the resolved connection.
Classic control behavior receives further corrections, including checkbox editing in DataGrid and ImageCombo icons. Compiler guards prevent long constant chains from exhausting the stack.
Classic rendering fills additional gaps in tabs, date/time controls and disabled presentation. TabControl TabsPerRow and imported date formats preserve more of the intended layout. This build begins the 0.6 version line.
Windows report printing uses the native dialog and GDI, including page selection and cancellation. Read the printing boundary before depending on a printer result.
The Windows VideoPlayer backend moves to Media Foundation after the earlier playback path proved inadequate. The control reference retains the common event contract.
The initial Windows video path joined the previously ported dialogs, menus, sound and reports. Windows availability diagnostics were updated as the service port advanced.
The Windows export gains platform dialogs, clipboard, URL opening, menus, sound and report integration. The complete services project lets you exercise each boundary.
Publish Local App adds Windows x64 and ARM64 outputs as self-contained executables. The target selector separates destination architecture from the Mac development environment.
Named system colors and VB color constants resolve through the application appearance. Further Classic controls receive matching rendering.
Project Settings now separates the application look from IDE toolbar style. New VB6 imports choose Classic; ordinary projects default to macOS. Read appearance and identity.
DragMode, DragIcon, Drag and the control-source DragOver/DragDrop signatures support VB-style internal dragging. Practice with the complete workbench.
Form-level keyboard delivery also covers the no-focused-control case, making empty or nonfocusable layouts easier to operate.
Application identity includes company and copyright; App.LegalCopyright exposes the latter and the runtime About box displays the configured identity.
VB6 import accounts for lightweight labels/images/shapes/lines relative to windowed controls, preserving more background and overlay relationships.
Import/runtime corrections cover zero-interval timers, bare Rnd, Load Form, image-list pictures, image borders and pictures on Panels.
Type records have value-copy semantics; Variant For loops and additional App identity members broaden supported BASIC. Import adds file-operation rewrites and clearer manual-work inventories. Read records and desktop objects.
File → Import Visual Basic 6 Project creates a separate package, then opens a navigable migration report. Finish with AI prepares a scoped Plan request. Try the two-file practice import.
The compatibility layer adds As Form, Screen, Class_Initialize/Class_Terminate and End, plus Click support on Label, Image and Panel. Imported code can retain more of its original structure.
Import maps supported menu hierarchy and shortcuts to MenuItem, alongside the existing form/code conversion.
Startup Object supports a public standard-module Main and last-Form shutdown. Import progresses from analysis to checked project conversion.
Typed cross-form access includes visual controls, nonvisual components and indexed members; rename/reference tooling follows those relationships.
AI menu operations use the MenuItem tree and checked handler contract. OpenRouter routing and document-tab sizing also receive updates.
List refill behavior is hardened, provider errors and mode feedback become clearer, and the application uses the McBasic.app name.
The first importer stage reads and analyzes legacy project files, identifies dependencies and produces conversion evidence for later stages.
LM Studio (local) uses the Responses API on a loopback server, with model selection, optional authentication and documentation tools. Read setup, budgets and recovery.
The Menu Editor exposes hierarchy, captions, shortcuts and handlers. The document-tab bar and Run behavior in sandboxed builds also receive fixes.
MenuItem supplies hierarchy, checkmarks, enabled/visible state, shortcuts, indexed menus and PopupMenu. See the menu contract.
The SDK app-host template is signed as part of the sandbox-oriented toolchain preparation.
Application identity and related settings/recents migration move to the com.mcbasic namespace.
Sandboxed builds improve discovery/use of an authorized external provider installation and distribution preparation.
Classic toolbar commands fit on one line when space allows and adapt when the window narrows.
Ribbon becomes the default command style, with follow-up visual corrections for the toolbar layouts.
The IDE provides two command-layout styles for different working preferences.
A native toolbar and unified command catalog organize actions; Add Class and Add Existing File broaden project editing from the IDE.
Load adds supported indexed members and Unload removes runtime-created members. Recent projects persist and field text positioning improves. Try Load/Unload with complete handlers.
UI styling guidance, layout/code advisories, a three-level project map and stage-focused context improve the information available to the assistant.
The application adopts the McBasic™ trademark presentation and ownership statement. Website prose follows the same product-name rule.
Fix and repair can pause on an Allow/Deny card naming the source or layout parts they need. AI-generated code receives comment guidance, and the full Project map can include short comment excerpts. IDE runtime errors now show End, Go to Line and Copy; caught errors remain visible in Output. Three-part Font values such as System|22|Bold and System|22|Italic are accepted. Follow the complete runtime-recovery exercise and read document consent.
Known field aliases in proposed changes can be normalized before validation: for example text can supply the source of a source replacement. A replacement procedure can also supply its declared name when the name field is missing. Read proposal-format recovery.
An extra relativePath in an add-module, add-test or add-form proposal no longer rejects the entire change. McBasic™ uses its own placement rules for these operations rather than adopting the proposed path.
When a provider proposes several change sets in one reply, McBasic™ can join their operations instead of discarding the reply. Their project, revision, activity and stage identities must agree. Remaining-work information is combined, and an incomplete part keeps the joined proposal incomplete.
Jump to Definition opens project declarations with Command-click, Shift–F2 or the Edit/context menu. Automatic Check validates unsaved snapshots after opening, saving, AI changes and a typing pause. Fix requests its own fresh Check when necessary. IDE Run and Debug report caught errors in Output, and Designer preview handles more extreme or zero-size values safely. Read live diagnostics, navigation and runtime evidence.
A provider may be unable to resume an old conversation after a restart. McBasic™ now keeps its answer to the current request and follows the new conversation, instead of rejecting the answer and leaving Retry stuck on the previous identity. See conversation recovery.
Check now reports MCB2102 when a fixed-size array is passed to a typed parameter that the called procedure resizes. It follows ReDim, Preserve, whole-array assignment and forwarding through other procedures, and tells you which declaration to change. Try the step-by-step repair exercise with the complete LanguageWorkbench project.
Error 10 now distinguishes fixed bounds from a temporary lock and explains the appropriate repair. A fixed array needs a dynamic declaration when resizing is intended; a lock requires the borrowing call or For Each loop to finish. Read the two causes and remedies.
Describe the steps, expected result and actual result in Fix. McBasic™ offers relevant documents as visible chips before sending, can include removable Last Run output, and no longer treats Stop cancellation as a project error. Documents supplied only through Add to Chat now carry the version information needed for scoped edits. Follow the complete behavioral-bug tutorial.
Timer() now has the same numeric Single result as bare Timer. Expressions such as CDbl(Timer()) no longer pass Check only to fail the generated application build. LanguageWorkbench includes a callable example and a value-range test.
An empty operations list can reach the stage flow. A follow-up slice with nothing left completes the already-applied stage; an initial stage that changes no files pauses for retry. Read the different outcomes.
When a finish-the-rest request returns no operations and no remaining blockers, McBasic™ can close the stage and advance the plan. Previously this could stop a plan even though the earlier applied parts had finished its work.
Designer preview paths now skip non-finite points and resume from valid ones, avoiding a crash when extreme or invalid control values produce a bad coordinate.
McBasic™ normalizes supported formatting differences in proposed document hashes. A wrong source or layout hash is reported through the candidate repair path rather than immediately failing the whole request. See document-version guards.
An empty-caption Label wholly containing another control is no longer reported as an accidental overlap by AI layout advisories. Enum comparison diagnostics name the incompatible types; calling an Async event handler directly suggests extracting a shared asynchronous helper.
A nonempty candidate marked incomplete without useful blockers now receives a generic instruction to finish the stage, preserving its checked work. Invalid-name diagnostics show the refused name and a valid suggestion when one can be derived; arithmetic diagnostics identify the operator, operand types and conversion options.
An incomplete AI stage is no longer rejected just because its remaining-work descriptions contain line breaks, too much text or too many items. McBasic™ normalizes the list before validating the candidate, so a formatting problem alone does not discard the proposed work. Read how the list is normalized and what to check before continuing.
A replacement procedure that omitted its final line break could previously join End Sub to the next procedure header and make the candidate fail Check. McBasic™ now restores the original trailing line-break style when needed before joining the replacement to the rest of the document. The single-handler tutorial includes a check of this boundary and the untouched neighboring handler.
Create a grid from one standard visual control with Create Control Array. Members share a name and use Index to identify themselves; one handler receives that Index. Read members with indexed access, Count, bounds or For Each. Paste, rename, Targets and Add Array to Chat now understand the group. Start with the complete six-cell project or the reference guide.
Declare visual control references, test them with TypeOf and find individual controls through Me.Controls. Class-instance arrays support ReDim, Preserve, typed parameters, Function results and typed For Each. Function calls can be used as statements when their result is intentionally ignored, and members can be called on an object returned by a Function. Try the customer-array lesson and its four tests.
Incomplete plan stages can continue through up to three additional slices, with normal Check, permission and Apply gates. A change that alters no files no longer finishes a stage; a paused plan keeps one live action card at the bottom. AI change sets allow 512 operations, and one control-array grid counts as one operation. A successful Save now confirms Saved at and clears the Edited title. Read slice recovery and save feedback.
Remote Automatic requests now allow 240,000 characters, split nominally into 40,000 for the prompt and 200,000 for context. A generated prompt can use unused context allowance without exceeding the total; the local provider in that historical build had a fixed 120,000 total. Over-budget guidance now distinguishes a long plan from too much source, and a repeated failed Retry refreshes one error card. Read the worked budget examples and try the settings exercise without sending source.
A separate Welcome window opens projects and safe sample copies, offers recent projects and links to learning resources. With no recent projects it uses a compact single column. AI chat now distinguishes Build, Plan, Ask, Fix, Review and Explain; Plan uses an interview and numbered drafts, while Review applies only selected findings. Read Welcome and chat modes.
AI chat can work in projects of up to 1,000 documents, while one chat selects at most 64 documents. Add to Chat creates an edit scope of up to 32 items. Outside-scope changes require a permission decision; a one-off Yes covers one Check, not every later repair. Project maps, decisions and mode-specific history are visible in the exact-content preview. Practice with one complete handler.
The Form reference now includes the complete property contract alongside event signatures: startup position, window style and state, visibility, opacity, colors, fonts and resource pictures. Live AI activity separates generation, lookups, checks and repairs. The runtime DatePicker displays No date for an empty value and a plain calendar icon.
The current source supports up to 1,000 documents per project, counting Forms, UserControls, standard modules, classes and tests together. Main code/layouts have an 8 MiB text budget and test modules a separate 8 MiB; individual files remain bounded at 5 MiB. Multi-file Save has destination checks and rollback coverage. Read the project limits guide before planning a large workspace.
Current chat documentation explains context chips and exact-content inspection, project-scoped conversations, plans and stages, provider changes, request budgets and recovery. The default apply policy is Automatically, with Undo; Ask me first stops checked changes for explicit Apply or Discard. Start with context and request size, then plans, apply and undo.
A project appears as one item in Finder while keeping its manifest, BASIC source, Form layouts and resources inside. Legacy folder projects still open and can be converted without overwriting the original. Saved AI chats can travel with a package when project storage is enabled. See create, move and back up projects.
AI chat is scoped to the current project, with a persistent sidebar and visible request progress. Returning to a project keeps its conversation separate from unrelated application work.
External Codex discovery has an explicit Autodetect action. Connection setup and generation-model selection are treated separately, and incomplete generation configuration can return you to provider settings.
The IDE owns the selected external Codex process directly. Stop requests interruption or login cancellation before cleanup, and Welcome displays connection results more clearly.
Candidate stages can carry multiple complete handlers for an approved Form. Work on local-model planning, candidate checks and Apply/Undo keeps the proposed changes tied to the exact approved document selection.
Early local-provider work, saved multi-stage planning and bounded plan repair broaden the development workflow. Project identity and permission handling are kept explicit when creating an application from a plan.
The evolving creation workflow exposes separate plan, package-reference, migration and code-diff decisions. Provider settings and installation diagnostics make setup failures visible before a generation can be treated as successful.
The documentation covers visual Forms, the built-in component catalog, event-driven BASIC, data binding and SQLite, HTTP/JSON, files and reports, media, testing and the extension SDK. Each family links to an exercise and its reference.
Source: 20f4bfed6b7775699d0e358a98e8b036cd5f8b2a. Source commit timestamp: 2026-10-15T00:30:01+08:00. The source manifest records exact input hashes.
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