Programming help

AFAIK you can program using any language you can find with an appropriate compiler. I know you used to be able to use C using Metrowerks CodeWarrior product, and that was for System 7 ->Mac OS 9. Cant remember about earlier systems, as its been a while since Ive used them. I know System 6 and before were written in assembler, and System 7 added features via Pascal, so im guessing both of those languages would also have compilers. But if the language has a compiler or interpreter you can use it.

Apple's product was called Macintosh Programers Workshop, and supported programming in Assembler (68K, PPC), C, C++ and Pascal. I think you may still be able to obtain this from Apple however I am not certain about that.

 

A Google search found this...

http://developer.apple.com/tools/mpw-tools/

 

There are a number of generations of Mac before OS X. What models and operating systems are you looking to write code for? Apple's MPW is free and supports a wide variety of hardware, but it's also got a pretty hefty learning curve. I'd suggest CodeWarrior for pretty much anything PowerPC, and Think C or Think Pascal for 68K work.

It *is* going to be quite bit different than anything you've done with OS X. I'd hit up Amazon or eBay for used programming books, and you'll also need to get your hands on the various volumes of Inside Macintosh - the specific ones will depend on how old you want to go and what you're looking to do.