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Programming 101
Learn to Code with the Processing
Language Using a Visual Approach
Second Edition
Jeanine Meyer
Programming 101: Learn to Code with the Processing Language Using a Visual
Approach
Jeanine Meyer
Mt Kisco, NY, USA
Introduction������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xxi
Chapter 1: Basics����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 1
Abstract����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 1
Programming Concepts���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 3
Programming Languages and Natural Languages������������������������������������������������������������������ 3
Values and Variables��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 3
Functions��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 5
Specifying Positions and Angles���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 6
Colors�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 7
Development Environment������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 7
Role of Planning���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 8
Under the Covers�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 8
Processing Programming Features����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 9
Processing Development Environment������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 9
Functions������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 11
Angles������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 12
Implementing Hello, World���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 14
Implementing the Daddy Logo���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 22
Planning��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 22
Daddy Logo Program������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 25
v
Table of Contents
Chapter 2: Interactions������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 33
Abstract��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 33
Note��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 33
Programming Concepts�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 35
Events������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 35
Randomness�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 36
Displaying Images from Files������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 36
Calculations, Including Built-in Functions����������������������������������������������������������������������������� 36
Looping���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 37
Processing Programming Features��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 37
Note��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 38
Under the Covers������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 41
Polygon Sketch Operation Overview������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 42
Implementing the Polygon Sketch���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 44
Planning��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 44
Polygon Sketch Program������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 47
Coin-Toss Sketch Operation Overview���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 49
Implementing the Coin-Toss Sketch������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 52
Planning��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 52
Things to Look Up����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 56
How to Make This Your Own������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 56
What You Learned����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 57
What’s Next��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 58
vi
Table of Contents
vii
Table of Contents
Chapter 4: Classes�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 85
Abstract��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 85
Programming Concepts�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 86
Classes���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 86
Phases of Operations������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 87
Tolerance or Margin��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 88
Processing Programming Features��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 88
Classes���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 88
Definition of Images, Rectangles, and Ellipses���������������������������������������������������������������������� 90
Dynamic Arrays��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 90
Tolerance and OK-So-Far Coding������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 92
Bouncing Objects Overview�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 92
Implementing the Bouncing Objects������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 94
Planning��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 94
Program��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 96
Make Path and Travel Path Overview���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 100
Implementing the Make Path and Travel Path�������������������������������������������������������������������������� 103
Planning������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 104
Program������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 105
Jigsaw Overview����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 109
Implementing the Jigsaw��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 111
Planning������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 111
Program������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 114
Under the Covers���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 125
Things to Look Up��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 126
How to Make This Your Own����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 126
What You Learned��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 127
What’s Next������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 127
viii
Table of Contents
ix
Table of Contents
x
Table of Contents
xi
Table of Contents
xii
Table of Contents
Index��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 343
xiii
About the Author
Jeanine Meyer is Professor Emerita at Purchase College/
SUNY. Before Purchase, she taught at Pace University and
prior to that was a manager and research staff member
at IBM Research in robotics and manufacturing. She also
worked as a research consultant at IBM for educational grant
programs.
She was moved to create this book because of a general
wish to make programming less mysterious and more
appealing while featuring the challenges. She enjoys
spending time with favorite pictures and video clips as well as producing programs. The
chance for a new edition provided a reason to explore p5.js, tools for using JavaScript
with features from Processing.
She is the author of five books and coauthor of five more on topics ranging from
educational uses of multimedia, programming, databases, number theory, and origami.
She earned a PhD in computer science at the Courant Institute at New York University,
an MA in mathematics at Columbia, and an SB (the college used the Latin form) in
mathematics from the University of Chicago. Recently, she has given lectures, in-person
and remotely, connecting origami, mathematics, and computer science as well as the
use and misuse of math in the news. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, the
Association for Women in Science, and the Association for Computing Machinery.
Jeanine is trying but remains a beginner at Spanish and piano.
xv
About the Technical Reviewer
Joseph McKay is an associate professor of new media. He primarily teaches new
directions in virtual space, programming for visual artists, intro to physical computing,
hacking the everyday, senior seminar, and web development.
Joe’s work is focused on interactive art games. He makes games that have their roots
in fine art but are also fun and easy to play. He is currently working on a VR art game
with innovative locomotion.
xvii
Acknowledgments
Much appreciation to the subjects of the illustrations in this book, starting with my father
(Joseph) and including my mother (Esther), Aviva, Grant, Liam, and especially Annika.
Thanks to my children, Aviva and Daniel, for the photography, video, and computer
graphics work.
My students, teaching assistants, and colleagues always provide ideas, stimulation,
feedback, and advice. Thanks especially to Irina Shablinsky for her efforts in teaching me
Processing and how to teach Processing and introducing me to Takashi Mukoda. Thanks
to David Jameson, whose comments and concerns made me produce the “Under the
Covers” section for each chapter.
Thanks to the crew at Apress/Springer Nature, including for the second edition
James Robinson-Prior, Jessica Vakili, Dulcy Nirmala, Krishnan Sathyamurthy, and others
I do not know by name. Much appreciation to the past technical reviewers, Massimo
Nardone and Takashi Mukoda, and the technical reviewer for this edition, Joe McKay,
who brought his considerable talent and experience to the task.
xix
Introduction
Processing is a programming language built on top of another programming language
called Java. To quote from the https://processing.org page, “Processing is a flexible
software sketchbook and a language for learning how to code within the context of the
visual arts.” The term for a program in Processing is sketch. However, Processing can be
used to create applications that are far more than static sketches. You can use Processing
to create dynamic, interactive programs. It is a great tool for learning programming.
Though Processing was created for visual artists, it serves a broad population of
people. In particular, at Purchase College/SUNY, Processing has been an excellent first
computer programming language for our computer science/mathematics majors and
minors. It also serves students across the college, who take our CS I course to satisfy
one of the general education requirements. This experience has been reported in other
places. Processing and this text also are appropriate for self-study.
The ten chapters in this book share a common design and structure. My goal is to
introduce you to programming, focusing on the Processing language. In each chapter, I
explain general programming concepts and specific Processing features through the use
of one or more specific examples. The code and files such as image files are combined
as zip files and available at https://github.com/Apress/Programming-101. I hope the
examples are entertaining; the goal, however, is not for you to learn the specific examples
but instead understand the concepts and features. The way to learn programming is to
make these examples “your own” and to go on to do a lot of programming.
The introduction to each chapter starts with a brief description of the concepts
and programming features used and the examples; then you need to be patient while
I provide background. Each chapter includes a discussion of general “Programming
Concepts” prior to plunging into the details. These are not limited to the Processing
language but are present in most programming languages. Presenting the concepts in a
general way might help you if you are coming to this book knowing another language or
you hope to move on to another language someday.
Next, I describe the “Processing Programming Features” that are used to realize
those concepts and produce the examples. This section will have actual code in it and
maybe short examples. This is a spiral approach, going from the general to the specific.
xxi
Introduction
A section called “Under the Covers” describes what Processing is doing for us behind
the scenes and the relationship between Processing and Java. This section appears
in different places in each chapter. It might be of more interest for readers who know
something or want to know something about Java, but I urge everyone to give it at least a
quick scan.
I then provide an overview of each example, with screenshots showing the operation
of the program. Please note that in some cases, I have modified the programs to obtain
the screenshots. I then go on to describe the implementation of the example, which
contains a “Planning” and a “Program” section. The “Planning” section is where I
describe my thought process. Programs do not spring into existence—at least for me—
not like Mozart composing a symphony, which was said to emerge all at once from his
mind. It is an iterative process for most of us. This section contains a table indicating the
relationship of the functions. The “Program” section includes a table with one column
for code and another column with an explanation of that line of code. These tables are
long and are not meant to be read as poetry or fine literature. Instead, skip around. Use
the function relationship table. If you download the code and try it out, you can use this
section to improve your understanding of the program. The most critical step is to make
changes, and I provide suggestions in the “How to Make This Your Own” section. This
set of sections is repeated for each example.
A section titled “Things to Look Up” will contain a list of Processing features related to
the ones described in the chapter. Processing is a large language, and it is growing. I can
show you only a small subset of the features, and each feature is used in one way, perhaps
using default values. You can and should consult other references to learn more. You
can look things up in multiple ways. For example, you can go to the website at https://
processing.org/reference/ and just keep that open. Alternatively, if you want to look up
how to draw a rectangle in Processing, it can be efficient to enter “processing.org rectangle”
into Google (or another search engine) or the address field of browsers such as Chrome to
retrieve a list of possible sites. It is best to use “processing.org” because “processing” is a
common English word. You can try “Processing rectangle,” but you will need to skip over
some sites that have nothing to do with the Processing language.
Remember that the goal of this book is not to teach you how to make my examples,
from peanut-shaped bald men to my versions of certain games to rotating 3D cubes with
photos of my grandchild, but to help you understand how to make your own programs!
Make small changes and then large changes. Make your own programs! Chapters will
close with two more sections: a brief review, “What You Learned,” and “What’s Next.”
xxii
Introduction
The book also has an Appendix describing what is called p5.js. This is a way to
produce programs for the Web by providing a Processing Library to use with JavaScript.
The Processing organization also supplies an online editor.
You are welcome to look at the chapters in any order, but later examples do depend
on an understanding of concepts introduced earlier. Moreover, because one of the
main techniques of programming is to reuse code, there are many instances of later
examples copying parts of earlier examples. Do not be concerned: the tables in the
“Implementation” section contain complete programs. It is beneficial for your learning
process to recognize the repetition.
Please do take a pause in reading to explore, experiment, and, I repeat, make your
own programs. Learning how to program is critical for understanding how we function
in today’s world and the requirements and challenges of devising algorithms using logic
and data. Learning to program might help you get a job. However, the main thing that
drives me, and I hope will drive you, is that it is fun.
Enjoy,
Jeanine
xxiii
CHAPTER 1
Basics
Abstract
The goal of this chapter is to get you started. The programming example will be a static
drawing of two cartoonish figures, as shown in Figure 1-1. Be aware that the examples
in subsequent chapters will increase in complexity, as we will be producing programs
that are highly interactive and, possibly, involving random effects, reading files, and
exhibiting behavior based on various conditions.
1
© Jeanine Meyer 2022
J. Meyer, Programming 101, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-8194-9_1
Chapter 1 Basics
The Daddy logo is a version of a drawing my father would make, often as his
signature on a letter or note or artwork. I hope that you will design or recall a drawing
or symbol that has meaning to you and makes you happy the same way this cartoonish
peanut-shaped, bald guy makes me.
We will need to do some work to start us off and get to the point that the coding
is clear, but it is not too difficult. The traditional first task in using any programming
language is to get the program to display the phrase “Hello, world.” This works well in
demonstrating several important concepts, including what happens if the programmer
makes certain types of errors. Because of the features built into Processing, you can
produce a pretty fancy version of “Hello, world.”
Be patient with me and with yourself. At the end of the chapter, you will be able to
implement your own Daddy logo.
2
Chapter 1 Basics
Programming Concepts
This section, included in each chapter, is to provide a general introduction to concepts.
I begin with comparing and contrasting programming languages with natural languages.
3
Chapter 1 Basics
String should start with a capitalized “S”. The B in Boolean can be upper or
lowercase. The data type is named for George Boole, an English mathematician credited
with originating symbolic algebra.
Our programs can include literal values such as 5, 100.345, and “Hello” in the
code. In addition, a feature in all programming languages is what is termed variables.
A variable is a construct for associating a name of our choosing with a value. We can
initialize the variable, change it, and use it in an expression; that is, the value associated,
often termed in the variable, can vary, that is, change. Using variables makes our
programs less mysterious. Moreover, we can define one variable in terms of another,
making relationships explicit and preventing certain errors. In Processing, Java, and
some, but not all, programming languages, variables need to be declared, or set up
before use. One characteristic of variables is termed scope, which indicates what code
has access (e.g., global variables vs. local variables), but that is best explained later.
The following are examples of Processing statements. Explanation is given in
comments and later.
The // indicates that the rest of the line is a comment, meaning that Processing
ignores it. It is intended for readers of the code, including you, to make things clear. You
also can use the delimiters /* and */ for long comments.
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Chapter 1 Basics
Note
My examples, because they are surrounded by explanations, tend not to have as many
comments as I would use outside of teaching and writing books.
There are rules for variable and function names in all programming languages.
Generally, they must start with a letter, uppercase or lowercase, and cannot contain
spaces. The most important guidance for naming is that the names should have meaning
for you. The programming language will accept single character names or names with no
apparent meaning, but these will not be helpful when you are trying to recall what you
were trying to do. So-called camel casing, as in classSize, can be helpful.
A single equal sign (=) means assignment and is used in what are called, naturally
enough, assignment statements and initialization statements. The statement
classSize = classSize + 5;
Functions
Programming work in any language is structured into units. One important way of
structuring code comes with different names: function, procedure, subroutine, method.
These are ways of packaging one or more statements into one unit. You will read about
functions in the “Processing Programming Features” section and methods in the “Under
the Covers” section. Briefly, functions are defined, and functions are invoked. I can give you
directions , perhaps orally, perhaps by text, to my house, which is analogous to defining a
function. At that point, I am not directing you to come to my house. At some later time, I can
direct you to go to my house, and this is analogous to invoking the function.
5
Chapter 1 Basics
Programs can be considerably shorter as well as easier to modify through the use of
functions and variables, so understanding both of these concepts is important. You do
not need to accept this or understand this right now. It will be demonstrated later by my
sketch for displaying two Daddy logos that takes just one statement more than displaying
the Daddy logo just once.
If you say to yourself “This is upside down,” then I know you understood. Another
important point is that the unit is very small, so if your code positions something at
100, 200 and later at 101, 201, you probably will not detect the difference. Your intuition
regarding this will improve with experience.
6
Chapter 1 Basics
Note
As a teaser, Processing has facilities for 3D as well as 2D. We get to 3D in later chapters.
In this chapter, my Daddy logo has a smile made by specifying an arc of an ellipse. To
produce the arc, I need to write code to indicate a starting angle and an ending angle of
the arc. The system used in most computer languages is not the standard one in which
a right angle is 90 degrees, a U-turn is a 180, and snowboarders do 1800s. (I am writing
this during the Olympics, and yes, snowboarders did tricks measuring 1800 and bigger.)
It might be upsetting to realize this, but the notion of degrees with a circle consisting of
360 degrees was invented by people. I typically offer my students extra credit to identify
where and when this happened. Instead, in most programming languages, we use a
measure called radians. Think of wrapping a circle with lengths equal to one radius. How
many lengths will this take? You know the answer: It is not a whole number, it is 2 times
π, where π is an irrational number often approximated by 3.14159. In our programming,
we will use the built-in values TWO_PI, PI, HALF_PI, and QUARTER_PI. You will see
radians in use, so be patient.
Colors
There are different ways to specify colors in computer languages and computer
applications, and Processing supports more than one. In this text, we stick with
grayscale and RGB (red/green/blue). Because of how these values are stored, the range
of grayscale is from 0 (black) to 255 (white), and the values for redness, greenness,
and blueness are specified by a number from 0 to 255. This approach is used in many
applications. If you want to use a certain color that you see in a photo, you can open the
image file in Adobe Photoshop or the online Pixlr or some other graphics tool and use
the eye drop on the pixel (picture element) you want, and an information window will
tell you the RGB value. See also the mention of the Color Selector in the “Things to Look
Up” section.
Development Environment
Programmers need to prepare programs and test programs. We also need to save our
work to come back to it another time. We might need to send the program to someone
else. Processing has what is termed an integrated development environment, the
Processing Development Environment (PDE), which provides a way to prepare and
7
Chapter 1 Basics
make changes to a program as well as test it and save it. To give you a different example,
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) documents containing JavaScript are prepared and
saved using a text editor, such as Sublime. The resulting files are opened (and run) using
a browser, such as Chrome. In the Appendix, I will show you how to use an editor for
p5.js, which is a version of JavaScript incorporating Processing features.
Role of Planning
I close this first “Programming Concepts” section by noting that preparing programs
such as a Processing sketch generally involves planning and design. It might be best to
step away from the keyboard. Some of the plans might need to be modified when you get
to writing the code, but it is best to have plans!
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Chapter 1 Basics
The Java program also defines default settings. Processing and other computer
languages and many computer applications provide powerful features. If we needed to
specify each aspect of each feature before anything happens, it would be tremendously
burdensome. It is important to be aware that certain things can be adjusted, though, as
you will see in our very first example later, with the discussion on default values for font,
text size, fill color, and stroke color.
The design and capabilities of Processing provide us a way to get started creating and
implementing our ideas quickly.
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Chapter 1 Basics
Using Save As… in the PDE produces a folder, in this case named first0, which
contains a file named first0.pde. The examples explored in future chapters will
consist of folders containing additional items. For example, a Processing sketch named
myFamily that makes use of an image file aviva.jpg and an image file daniel.jpg will
be a folder named myFamily containing a file named myFamily.pde and a folder named
data that contains the two files aviva.jpg and daniel.jpg. The relationship of these
files is shown in Figure 1-4.
10
Chapter 1 Basics
Functions
Processing uses the term function for grouping together one or more statements into
something that can be invoked (called). Functions are defined with header statements
and then the body, a sequence of statements, contained within brackets. You will see
in this chapter and every chapter definitions for the setup function, a function that
Processing expects the programmer to supply. The header is
void setup()
The term void indicates that this function does not produce or return a value. The
opening and closing parentheses with nothing between them indicate that this function
does not expect any parameters.
The Daddy logo example includes a function called daddy that does the work of
drawing the cartoon. Its header is
The parameters are the things between the parentheses. The parameter list is the
place for the programmer to give names and specify the data type. This means that when
I wrote the code to invoke daddy, which is necessary because daddy was something I
made up, not anything Processing expects, Processing will check that the values cited in
the call are the correct type.
I feel obliged to show you an example of a function that does produce a value, a
standard one supplied in many textbooks.
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Chapter 1 Basics
The header indicates that this function calculates a floating-point value, sometimes
called a decimal number. The code includes what is termed an expression: bill*rate.
The asterisk indicates multiplication.
Because it generates a value, a call of this function can be used in an expression.
With this function defined, I could write an expression (part of a statement) with
something like this:
Processing will assign the 150.53 to the parameter bill and the .07 to the parameter
rate, perform the multiplication bill * rate, which in this case is 150.53 * .07, and
return the result so it is available to be added to 150.53. The variable Total will be set to
161.0671.
I hope the names of these variables are suggestive. My examples are more complex
and more interesting and, because context is given, more understandable, in later
chapters.
Angles
Processing provides us built-in variables—PI, TWO_PI, HALF_PI, and QUARTER_PI—to use
when requiring specification of angles. These names are case-sensitive. Figure 1-5 shows
the designation of some angles.
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Chapter 1 Basics
In Processing, angles start at 0 and move clockwise around the circle as the number
increases. Notice the location of PI/3. However, you can designate a negative angle. The
angle labeled –PI/4 could also be specified as PI+.75PI or 1.75*PI.
Processing provides a function named radians for converting from the degree system
to radian measure. So radians(90) will produce a floating-point number very close to
PI/2, and radians(180) will produce a floating-point number very close to PI. We can
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Chapter 1 Basics
go back and forth between degrees and radians, but I suggest building up your intuition
in radians. One way to do that is to examine my code and change the smile. You get
immediate feedback and can try again.
It is not necessary, but it is good practice to put a comment at the start, as I did here.
The // indicates a comment, which is ignored by Processing.
The first line of actual code is the header line of a function, which has several
elements. The term setup gives a name to the function. As I indicated earlier, we define
a setup function to get our sketch started. The parentheses, (), after the name indicate
that there are no parameters to this function. Parameters are extra information passed to
the function, and you will see examples of parameters in the Daddy logo example. The
brackets, the opening { on the first line and the closing } on the last line, mark off the
body, or contents, of the function. People follow different conventions for the location
of the brackets. They do not have to be where they are but can instead be what you
see here:
void setup()
{size(900,600);
text("Hello, world",100,200);}
My general advice is to not be skimpy about line breaks or blank lines. I also need
to tell you that indentation is not required and is not interpreted by Processing, but I
advise you to use indentation for functions and for compound statements such as the
if and for loop constructs we see later because it will make your code easier for you to
understand. There are Auto Format under edit and a keyboard shortcut (Command+T)
for automatic indentation.
14
Chapter 1 Basics
The first statement within the body of the function specifies the size of the display
window. The width is set at 900 and the height at 600. When you run or execute the
program, you will see what these settings produce.
The second and last statement within the body of the function does the work of
displaying the string “Hello, world” at the position 100 pixel units from the left side of the
display window and 200 pixel units from the top.
You should save the program, which you do by clicking File and then selecting Save.
Select Save rather than Save As… to save the file in the same place as you indicated in the
first Save As… command. Of course, you could wait to rename the program and then use
Save As…, but my motto is to save early and often.
The next step is to try the program by running it. Do this by clicking on the play
(triangle/arrow) button in the upper left of the screen shown in Figure 1-6.
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Chapter 1 Basics
The result will be disappointing, but it is educational. You should see what is shown
in Figure 1-7, namely, the phrase “Hello, world” in tiny, white letters.
Now, perhaps you do not see anything. Perhaps the program did not even start.
This could happen if you made any syntactic mistakes, or mistakes of form. To put it in
practical terms, Processing can detect syntactic errors but cannot correct them. Examine
Figure 1-8. I made a mistake, omitting a comma between the 100 and the 200. The
Processing program shows that there is a problem in the statement indicating the call
to the function text. The message, called an error message, does not say what I know
happened: it does not say anything about a missing comma. It does say that the function
text() expects three parameters. Error messages might not tell you everything, but they
generally are helpful. One of the most common syntactic mistakes is a problem with
brackets or parentheses. Processing can detect when there are too many or too few but
does not indicate exactly where the problem is.
16
Chapter 1 Basics
17
Chapter 1 Basics
Here is the complete code for the improved sketch; notice that two statements have
been added to the original sketch, and I also changed the comment at the start.
The call to the function textSize sets the new size. The call to the fill function sets
the color. Save the sketch and then run this program; it will produce what is shown in
Figure 1-9.
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Chapter 1 Basics
Because Processing facilitates much more than displaying text, I describe one more
program here. Click File, select Save As…, and save this file with the name first2. Now
modify the program with the addition of one more statement. I provide the whole sketch,
but it is just the line with the call to the ellipse function that is to be added. The ellipse
is centered at 180, 200. Its width is 300, and its height is 200. Ellipses can be specified in
different ways depending on the setting of a variable named ellipseMode. You can look
this up to see the possibilities.
Do take my comment “I fiddled” seriously; that is, I tried a few things until the result
was what I wanted. Save and run the program. You should see what is displayed in
Figure 1-10.
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Chapter 1 Basics
Why is the ellipse white with a black border? The answer is that the default value for
fill is 255, producing white, and the default for stroke is 0, producing black. I strongly
urge you to put the book down (or close the window on whatever application you are
reading the e-book version) and do some experiments. Put a call to the fill function
and a call to the stroke function before the ellipse command. Change “Hello, world” to
something else. Draw a circle instead of an ellipse. Try stuff!
This activity with Hello, world examples introduced the basics, but not every
feature required for the Daddy logo project. Here is a list of what additional Processing
constructs will be used, with short explanations.
• The color data type and the color function: This is an unusual but
acceptable situation of one name being used for two distinct things.
In Processing, color is a data type similar to int or float. The color
function is used to produce a value of data type color. The following
code could appear:
I advise you to not use the same name for different things even if they
are related.
ellipseMode(CENTER);
21
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Transcriber’s Notes:
The spelling, punctuation and hyphenation are as the original,
with the exception of apparent typographical errors which have been
corrected.
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