What is the "Processing" Programming language used for?

processing
ahplummer picture ahplummer · May 27, 2010 · Viewed 34.4k times · Source

The language site: http://processing.org/

What are people using Processing for? I have the opportunity to learn this in a classroom setting and am wondering if it will be a good use of my time.

Answer

Jochem Schulenklopper picture Jochem Schulenklopper · May 27, 2010

Yes, it is useful and not a waste of time. I'm using Processing mainly for building proof-of-concepts for visualisations and graphic experiments. The time between an idea in my head and working code on my laptop is small, mainly because Processing does not throw too many obstacles in that course.

The ease of experimenting with things in Processing is an advantage in learning to program. Processing is actually a front-end to Java programs. At run-time the Processing code is translated to Java code.

Processing comes with a small but capable development environment (IDE), excellent documentation, a large library of extensions and a significant set of examples and demos.

Finally, I strongly recommend the book Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists by Casey Reas and Ben Fry, the authors of Processing. It's a beautiful book, carefully edited and full of sources for inspiration.

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