Processing (programming language)

The project was initiated in 2001 by Casey Reas and Ben Fry, both formerly of the Aesthetics and Computation Group at the MIT Media Lab. In 2012, they started the Processing Foundation along with Daniel Shiffman, who joined as a third project lead. Johanna Hedva joined the Foundation in 2014 as Director of Advocacy.[2]

Originally, Processing had the URL of proce55ing.net, because the processing domain was taken. Eventually Reas and Fry acquired the domain processing.org.[3] Although the name had a combination of letters and numbers, it was still pronounced processing. They do not prefer the environment being referred to as Proce55ing. Despite the domain name change, Processing still uses the term p5 sometimes as a shortened name (p5 specifically is used, not p55), for example p5.js is a reference to that.[4]

Processing IDE

Screenshot of Processing's integrated development environment.
Stable release	3.5.4 / January 17, 2020 (2020-01-17)
Repository	github.com/processing/processing
Written in	Java, GLSL, JavaScript
Operating system	Cross-platform
Type	Integrated development environment
Website	processing.org

Processing includes a sketchbook, a minimal alternative to an integrated development environment (IDE) for organizing projects.[5]

Every Processing sketch is actually a subclass of the PApplet Java class (formerly a subclass of Java's built-in Applet) which implements most of the Processing language's features.[6]

When programming in Processing, all additional classes defined will be treated as inner classes when the code is translated into pure Java before compiling.[7] This means that the use of static variables and methods in classes is prohibited unless Processing is explicitly told 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), char (character), float (real number), and color (RGB, RGBA, hex).

The simplest possible version of a "Hello World" program in Processing is:

// This prints "Hello World." to the IDE console.
println("Hello World.");

However, due to the more visually-oriented nature of Processing, the following code is a better example of the look and feel of the language.

// Hello mouse.
void setup() {
  size(400, 400);
  stroke(255);
  background(192, 64, 0);
}

void draw() {
  line(150, 25, mouseX, mouseY);
}

In 2005 Reas and Fry won the Golden Nica award from Ars Electronica in its Net Vision category for their work on Processing.[8]

Ben Fry won the 2011 National Design Award given by the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in the category of Interaction Design. The award statement says:

"Drawing on a background in graphic design and computer science, Ben Fry pursues a long-held fascination with visualizing data. As Principal of Fathom Information Design in Boston, Fry develops software, printed works, installations, and books that depict and explain topics from the human genome to baseball salaries to the evolution of text documents. With Casey Reas, he founded the Processing Project, an open-source programming environment for teaching computational design and sketching interactive-media software. It provides artists and designers with accessible means of working with code while encouraging engineers and computer scientists to think about design concepts."[9]

Processing's core libraries, the code included in exported applications and applets, is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License, allowing users to release their original code with a choice of license.

The IDE is licensed under the GNU General Public License.

Processing is not a single language, but rather, an arts-oriented approach to learning, teaching, and making things with code. There are several variants and related projects:

• Cinder (C++)
• OpenFrameworks (C++)
• JavaFX
• Max (software)
• Codea

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Processing.

• Official website