Processing

Processing is a flexible software sketchbook and a language for learning how to code within the context of the visual arts. It's open-source and developed by a community. Processing has promoted software literacy within the visual arts and visual literacy within technology.

Overview

Processing is an open-source graphical library and integrated development environment (IDE) built for the electronic arts, new media art, and visual design communities with the purpose of teaching non-programmers the fundamentals of computer programming in a visual context.

Processing uses the Java language, with additional simplifications such as additional classes and aliased mathematical functions and operations. It also provides a graphical user interface for simplifying the compilation and execution stage.

History

Processing was initiated by Ben Fry and Casey Reas in 2001 while both were John Maeda's students at the MIT Media Lab. They endeavored to create a means for designers and artists to learn to program in a visual context.

Features

Processing includes a sketchbook, a minimal alternative to an integrated development environment (IDE) for organizing projects. Every Processing sketch is actually a subclass of the PApplet Java class which implements most of the Processing language's features.

When programming in Processing, all additional classes defined will be treated as inner classes when the code is translated into pure Java before compiling. This means that the use of static variables and methods in classes is prohibited unless you explicitly tell Processing that you want to code in pure Java mode.

Processing also allows for users to create their own classes within the PApplet sketch. This allows for complex data types that can include any number of arguments and avoids the limitations of solely using standard data types such as: int (integer), float (real number), char (character), and color (RGB, ARGB, hex).

Applications

Processing is widely used by artists, researchers, hobbyists, and students in a variety of settings; it's also used to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context, and to serve as the foundation for electronic sketchbooks.

See also

• Creative coding
• Digital art
• Generative art
• New media art
• Computer art scene