Welcome. If you arrived from the 68kMLA thread or just found this section, this page is the map — the order to read things in, and where the toolchain (MPW, THINK C, THINK C++) fits. AppleBridge lets an AI agent, or you from a shell, drive a real System 7 Macintosh running in Basilisk II or SheepShaver: fork-aware file transfer, screenshots of the emulated screen, injected keystrokes and clicks, directory listings, and — if the guest has a compiler — building 68K software.
The five-minute picture
The bridge has two halves. On the host (your modern macOS or Linux machine) runs a small Python daemon; in the guest (the emulated 68k Mac) sits a lightweight helper. They talk over a single control channel, and an MCP server exposes the whole thing as tools an agent can call. Nothing needs a compiler on the Mac to get started — the file, screenshot, and input tiers all work on a bare System 7 install.
Read these in order
- Forty Years Later, Over a Single Wire — what AppleBridge is and why it exists. Start here if you want the motivation before the mechanics.
- Installing AppleBridge: From a Fresh Clone to a Connected System 7 Guest — the full install, about ten minutes, no compiler required on the Mac.
- What You Can Do With It: Driving a System 7 Macintosh After the Install — the tour of what the bridge actually does once it is connected.
- How AppleBridge Uses Apple Events: A Beginner’s Guide with Examples — the next layer down, once the basics click.
If you are here to point an agent at the bridge rather than drive it by hand, add Operating Notes for Agents Driving AppleBridge — the verification habits and recurring traps.
Which emulator
The install guide is written against Basilisk II, but SheepShaver works too, and so does real 68K hardware over serial or MacTCP. If you are weighing a Linux host, read AppleBridge on a Linux Host first — it spells out which macOS assumptions break and what the slirp branch gives you for free.
The toolchain: MPW vs THINK C
None of the above needs a compiler. You only reach for one when you want to build software on the guest, and here the two classic choices pull in different directions.
MPW (Macintosh Programmer’s Workshop) is the command-line, scriptable toolchain. Because AppleBridge can run MPW commands over the bridge, it is the natural fit for automation — an agent can compile and link without touching the GUI. It is also the heavier install, and it is optional: an absent MPW/ToolServer is simply a tier you do not have, not a broken setup. For where MPW sits among the alternatives, see Development Toolchains Beyond MPW: What Fits AppleBridge’s Automation Surface.
THINK C / THINK C++ is the classic integrated IDE — a fast, pleasant environment to work in, but GUI-driven, so driving it over the bridge means clicking and typing into windows rather than issuing commands. It is well covered here: a full worked build in Building a THINK C++ Graphics Demo over AppleBridge, and what the runtime libraries contribute in MacTraps, CPlusLib and ANSI on 68K. For looking up Toolbox calls while you code, the companion piece on THINK Reference (on pit.390er.de) walks through Symantec’s offline documentation browser.
The short version: pick MPW when you want the agent to build headlessly, THINK C/C++ when you want the interactive IDE and don’t mind driving its windows. You can have both installed on the same guest.
Where to go next
Once the bridge is up, the rest of this section goes deep — 68K assembly walkthroughs, trap patching, real-silicon SE/30 runs, and the animated About-box demo. Browse the AppleBridge section index and follow what interests you.