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Introduction

Processing is a programming language and framework, created and maintained by the Processing Foundation, which is great for programming your own visually complex applications or games.

As there are many libraries, tutorials and example programs, it is very easy to quickly create a visual application yourself.

Processing is based on Java (it is basically just Java with a few libraries on top). It comes with its own IDE with a debugger and some other tools. If you would rather like to work in your favorite IDE, there are plugins available for many modern IDEs like Sublime Text or VSCode.

Installation

Download Processing from the Download page. Extract the .zip archive and place it in a folder on your PC, e.g. the C:\Program Files\ folder on Windows. Processing does not need to be installed; rather, it is run as a portable executable.

This also means that Processing does not include a Windows start menu entry, so you have to create your own link / shortcut to the processing.exe file and put it on your Desktop or in the task bar.

Usage

When starting Processing with the shortcut, after a splash screen the following window pops up :

A blank program with a generic title is created. You can now start coding and running your code with the "Play" button in the top left corner. The console at the bottom will show your program's output.

Start by copying and pasting one of the examples from the Examples page, e.g. Follow3. Run it and explore how the program behaves.