Processing is a free, open-source programming environment for artists, designers, and anyone interested in getting the computer to do interesting things. Also see Processing Workshop and Processing Code Fragments.
Do you remember the triangular "turtle" from Logo? "Pen down, move forward, turn right..." It was an early, easy way to tell a computer how to draw something on the screen. Processing is just like a modern, really buff version of that turtle. Think of it as being like Flash, only less flashy. If you've ever had a vision of something you wish you could make on a computer screen, you can probably make it in Processing. Well, maybe. This workshop will get you started, anyway, even if you've never typed a line of programming code in your life.
This workshop is intended as an introduction for complete beginners. No programming is experience necessary, although you should be generally familiar with how to use your computer, download files, install programs, and so on.
While the emphasis of this workshop will be on visual expressions of code, the concepts learned here can be extended to get Processing to generate audio, talk to microcontrollers (e.g. Arduino boards, MAKE boards, OSC devices), and generally interface with all kinds of other neat stuff.
Neat Stuff People Are Doing With Processing
Courses and Workshops
- Processing Workshop — taught by Dan Shiffman
- Programming in Processing — class assignment
- Code Examples — by Peter Kirn
- Programming from A to Z — more advanced programming beyond Processing