Contents:

• The Processing Language and processing.org
• Processing Cheat Sheets
• openprocessing.org
• Common colors
• Our Department's Computing Resources
• Drop-in Tutoring Hours

The Processing Language and processing.org

• We will be using the Processing Development Environment (PDE); more specifically, we will be using the latest release of Processing 3 (version 3.0.1 as of October 2015). The software is also freely available for installation on all major computing platforms at processing.org.
• The Processing Development Environment includes embedded documentation within the "help" menu. That documentation is also available online at processing.org/reference.
• We will benefit greatly from Daniel Shiffman's YouTube playlist: Learning Processing: A Beginner's Guide to Programming Images, Animation, and Interaction
• The Processing website also includes a number of wonderful tutorials (although some were originally for earlier versions of Processing). Of particular use early on will be:
  • Getting Started
  • Processing Overview
  • Coordinate System and Shapes
  • Hello Processing -- a wonderful one hour experience from "Hour of Code", led by Daniel Shiffman, including video lessons and interactive exercises.
• The Processing Development Environment also comes with a large number of example programs that you can run, examine, and modify. Under the "File" menu, select "Examples". Then there is a hierarchy of basic and advanced examples. Some of my favorites include:
  • Demos → Graphics → Particles
  • Demos → Graphics → Yellowtail
  • Demos → Graphics → Ribbons
  • Topics → Interaction → Reach2
  • Topics → Simulate → Flocking
  • Topics → Animation → Sequential
  • Topics → ImageProcessing → Explode

Processing Cheat Sheets

In terms of quick references, there are several condensed "cheat sheets" online with an overview of basic commands and usage. I find the following two quite useful:

• Two-page sheet: one page on shapes, one page on colors
• More detailed seven-page guide, very well organized

openprocessing.org

In addition to the materials at the official processing.org website, there is another website, openprocessing.org which is effectively the YouTube for Processing. Even more exciting, in the spirit of open-source code, viewers can examine the code behind all sketches posted to this site. That can be a great way to learn (although please make sure to respect our policy on Academic Integrity).

Some amusing sketches:

• entangled
• wave
• asteroids
• aquarium
• candle
• stars

Common colors

Here is a link to a long list of common colors and their RGB and hex codes

Our Department's Computing Resources

In addition to our classroom in Ritter 323, the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science maintains a Linux system (named turing) for student use, and a walk-in lab in Ritter 117 of Linux workstations. Although we will not rely directly on that system for our day-to-day activities, an account will be created for all students in this class and you are welcome to use that system to work on your projects. Another feature of our system is that we have a web server and all students can host web-content from their account. This might provide us with yet another way to share our projects with others (although we'll likely use our OpenProcessing classroom as our first choice).

More information about our computing resources can be found at cs.slu.edu/computing-resources. We also offer this very brief guide to using Linux.

Drop-in Tutoring Hours

Our department employees many junior/senior computer science majors to help out with students in introductory courses. They might not be familiar with the Processing language, but they should be eager to help. Our department web page maintains a current list of the available times and locations.

As stated in the section on Academic Integrity, these tutors are an acceptable resource for help, yet you should still document both the source of the help as well as the extent, if significant.