I love Processing. I actually used it to make a GUI and some data visualisation tools for my Comp Sci MSc. The bulk of the project was a Java program to do with time series analysis, but I'm not a graphics person and didn't want to learn Swing, JavaFX, HTML/JS or anything "serious". It was a joy to use.
In case someone doesn't know, since Processing is written in Java it can be used as a library in any Java project instead of from inside the Processing IDE.
Regardless, the best thing about processing is that it makes getting the first pixels on the screen extremely easy. Like two lines of code. In normal Java that’s a highly nontrivial exercise with lots of incidental complexity and boilerplate.
For creative visual work, just getting something on the screen and then iterating quickly is the key. It keeps the ideas flowing.
Processing has a lot of useful primitives for drawing and animation as well, combining them into interesting patterns is very straightforward. On top of that the documentation is really well done, it’s written in a very accessible tone and it has tons of useful examples.
FWIW, py5 makes it very easy to create animated GIFs. You can create a GIF from a running sketch with one line of code:
https://py5coding.org/reference/py5tools_animated_gif.html
py5 is a version of Processing for Python 3.8+ that is well integrated into the Python ecosystem. It connects the Processing Jars to Python using JPype. If you like Processing, please give it a try!
(I am the author of py5)
Py5 looks awesome! Will give it a try soon. Thanks for your work!
ps: I noticed you're using JPype to connect to the Java Processing libraries. Very smart.
Getting py5 off the ground started during pandemic lockdown and took many months. Managing the source code is best done computationally, with py5generator creating the actual py5 source code.
https://github.com/py5coding/py5generator https://github.com/py5coding/py5
> ps: I noticed you're using JPype to connect to the Java Processing libraries. Very smart.
JPype is a solid and well maintained library. With JPype, py5 is well positioned to work with numpy and the rest of python's scientific tools.
> Py5 looks awesome! Will give it a try soon. Thanks for your work!
You are welcome! I hope you enjoy it!
Definitely going to give py5 a try.
If I was writing production grade software, I wouldn't have used Processing for the client. But for the purposes of an academic project, where a backend-type like me wanted to draw some pixels without too much fuss, it was perfect.
> What makes Processing useful for such visualizations?
You have a bunch of useful primitives to draw stuff on screen immediately, without having to go through all the troubles that this entails with a normal programming language. It's really fun!