Infomation
Procsssong is an enviroment for creating electronic media. It is a sketchbook for developing ideas and d context for learning fundamentals of computer programming

Introduction
Processing is a programming language and environment built for the electronic arts and visual design communities. It was created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook. The software exports Java applets which may be posted on the Internet and shared with other artists and designers. Processing.org is the online hub for the international community of people using the software. It hosts examples, reference, a public exhibition, and a discussion space.

Concept
Graphical user interfaces became mainstream nearly twenty years ago, but programming fundamentals are still primarily taught through the command line interface. Classes proceed from outputting text to the screen, to GUI, to computer graphics (if at all). It’s possible to teach programming in a way that moves graphics and concepts of interaction closer to the surface. Processing is a text programming language specifically for making responsive images, rather than a visual programming language. The language enables sophisticated visual and responsive structures and has a balance between features and ease of use. Many computer graphics and interaction techniques can be discussed including vector/raster drawing, image processing, color models, events, network communication, etc. Processing is a prototyping and learning environment. In the same way architects use cardboard to build models and musicians use a keyboard to develop arrangements, Processing may be used as a tool for writing software sketches. Ideas can quickly be realized in code, with programs usually much shorter than their Java or C++ equivalents. Processing allows similar functionality of Java and C++ but with a simplified syntax, and is more general than other design environments such as Macromedia’s
Flash and Director. The Processing syntax is designed to be a useful base for future learning. Feedback from the community reveals that skills learned through Processing are transferable to other languages and APIs suitable for different contexts including web authoring (ActionScript), networking and communications (Java), and computer graphics (OpenGL).

Language & Environment
Processing is a Java environment which parses programs written in its own syntax into Java code and then compiles to executable Java applet 1.1 byte code. It includes a custom 2D/3D rendering engine written in pure Java which draws its feature set from PostScript and OpenGL and the language is easily extended through writing additional code or integrating existing Java libraries. The software is free to use and is open source. It runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Processing shifts the focus of programming away from technical
details like threading and double-buffering and places emphasis on building. It provides three different modes of programming—each one more structurally complex than the previous. In the most basic mode, programs are single line commands for drawing primitive shapes to the screen. As people gain skills, programs can be enhanced with additional layers of complexity. The intermediate mode allows for the creation of dynamic software in hybrid procedural/object-oriented structures. It strives to achieve a balance between features and clarity, which encourages the experimentation process and reduces the learning curve. In the most complex Processing mode, Java code may be written within the environment. This allows people to write fully developed Java applications within the environment, thus making the complete transition from the simplified context-specific Processing syntax to the general purpose Java language.

Curriculum
There are many established introductory curricula for computer science (and thousands of variants), but by comparison there have been very few classes striving to integrate traditional visual arts knowledge with core concepts of computation. Using the classes initiated by John Maeda as a model, diverse courses are being created around Processing by using ideas from the computer science community to support assignments in visual and interaction design. These workshops and courses have been used at diverse universities and institutions in the United States (MIT, Yale, New York University, Columbia, UCLA, University of Florida, etc.), Europe (Royal College of Art, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts Berlin, Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, etc.), and Asia (Hongik Univeristy, Ateneo de Manila University, etc.).

Networked Learning
Processing is built to take advantage of the strengths of web-based communities, which has allowed the project to grow in unexpected ways. Thousands of students, educators, and practitioners across five continents are involved in using the software. The website for the project, http://processing.org, serves as the communication hub, but contributors are found remotely in cities including Bogata, Hong Kong, Turin, London, Boston, New York, and Los Angeles. The Processing website hosts a set of extended examples and a complete reference for the language. Typical Web applications such as bulletin boards host discussions about features, bugs, and related events. To date, the reference has been translated into Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Indonesian. French and Spanish translations should be completed by Summer 2004. The fact that Processing programs can be simply exported to the Web supports the creation of a global educational community and provides motivation for learning. Because designers thrive on sharing their work, talented practitioners and students have been rapidly learning, publishing, and inspiring others. People are encouraged to expose their source code. The same way the “view source” function in web browsers encouraged the rapid expansion of the Web, access to other peoples’ Processing source code enables members of the community to learn from each other and the skills of community raise as a unit.

Processing is free to download and use. We encourage people to distribute it widely and refer back to the site: http://processing.org.