book

Learning Processing

by Daniel Shiffman

April 2009

Intermediate to advanced

472 pages

11h 36m

English

Morgan Kaufmann

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What is this book?Who is this book for?What is Processing?But shouldn’t I be learning __________ ?Write in this book!How should I read this book?Is this a textbook?Will this be on the test?Do you have a web site?Take It One Step at a TimeAlgorithms
1.1 Graph Paper1.2 Simple Shapes1.3 Grayscale Color1.4 RGB Color1.5 Color Transparency1.6 Custom Color Ranges
2.1 Processing to the Rescue2.2 How do I get Processing?2.3 The Processing Application2.4 The Sketchbook2.5 Coding in Processing2.6 Errors2.7 The Processing Reference2.8 The “Play” Button2.9 Your First Sketch2.10 Publishing Your Program
3.1 Go with the flow.3.2 Our Good Friends, setup( ) and draw( )3.3 Variation with the Mouse3.4 Mouse Clicks and Key Presses

4.1 What is a variable?4.2 Variable declaration and initialization4.3 Using a variable4.4 Many variables4.5 System variables4.6 Random: Variety is the spice of life.4.7 Variable zoog
5.1 Boolean Expressions5.2 Conditionals: If, Else, Else If5.3 Conditionals in a Sketch5.4 Logical Operators5.5 Multiple Rollovers5.6 Boolean Variables5.7 A Bouncing Ball5.8 Physics 101
6.1 What is iteration? I mean, what is iteration? Seriously, what is iteration?6.2 “WHILE” Loop, the Only Loop You Really Need6.3 “Exit” Conditions6.4 “FOR” Loop6.5 Local vs. Global Variables (AKA “Variable Scope”)6.6 Loop Inside the Main Loop6.7 Zoog grows arms.
7.1 Break it down7.2 “User Defined” Functions7.3 Defining a Function7.4 Simple modularity7.5 Arguments7.6 Passing a copy7.7 Return type7.8 Zoog reorganization
8.1 I’m down with OOP.8.2 Using an Object8.3 Writing the Cookie Cutter8.4 Using an Object: The Details8.5 Putting it Together with a Tab8.6 Constructor Arguments8.7 Objects are data types too!8.8 Object-Oriented Zoog
9.1 Arrays, why do we care?9.2 What is an array?9.3 Declaring and Creating an Array9.4 Initializing an Array9.5 Array Operations9.6 Simple Array Example: The Snake9.7 Arrays of Objects9.8 Interactive Objects9.9 Processing’s Array Functions9.10 One Thousand and One Zoogs
10.1 Where have we been? Where are we going?10.2 Algorithm: Dance to the beat of your own drum.10.3 From Idea to Parts10.4 Part 1: The Catcher10.5 Part 2: Intersection10.6 Part 3: The Timer10.7 Part 4: Raindrops10.8 Integration: Puttin’ on the Ritz10.9 Getting Ready for Act II
11.1 Tip #1: Take a break.11.2 Tip #2: Get another human being involved.11.3 Tip #3: Simplify11.4 Tip #4: println( ) is your friend.
12.1 Libraries12.2 Built-in Libraries12.3 Contributed Libraries
13.1 Mathematics and Programming13.2 Modulus13.3 Random Numbers13.4 Probability Review13.5 Event Probability in Code13.6 Perlin Noise13.7 Angles13.8 Trigonometry13.9 Oscillation13.10 Recursion13.11 Two-Dimensional Arrays
14.1 The Z-Axis14.2 P3D vs. OPENGL14.3 Vertex Shapes14.4 Custom 3D Shapes14.5 Simple Rotation14.6 Rotation Around Different Axes14.7 Scale14.8 The Matrix: Pushing and Popping14.9 A Processing Solar System
15.1 Getting Started with Images15.2 Animation with an Image15.3 My Very First Image Processing Filter15.4 An Array of Images15.5 Pixels, Pixels, and More Pixels15.6 Intro to Image Processing15.7 Our Second Image Processing Filter, Making Our Own Tint( )15.8 Writing to Another PImage Object’s Pixels15.9 Level II: Pixel Group Processing15.10 Creative Visualization
16.1 Before Processing16.2 Live Video 10116.3 Recorded Video16.4 Software Mirrors16.5 Video as Sensor, Computer Vision16.6 Background Removal16.7 Motion Detection16.8 Computer Vision Libraries16.9 The Sandbox
17.1 Where do Strings come from?17.2 What is a String?17.3 Displaying Text17.4 Text Animation17.5 Text Mosaic17.6 Rotating Text17.7 Display text character by character.
18.1 Manipulating Strings18.2 Splitting and Joining18.3 Reading and Writing Text Files18.4 Text Parsing18.5 Text Analysis18.6 Asynchronous Requests18.7 Beginner XML18.8 Using the Processing XML Library18.9 The Yahoo API18.10 Sandbox
19.1 Synchronous vs. Asynchronous19.2 Creating a Server19.3 Creating a Client19.4 Broadcasting19.5 Multi-user communication, part 1: the server19.6 Multi-user communication, part 2: the client19.7 Multi-user communication, part 3: all together now19.8 Serial communication19.9 Serial communication with handshaking19.10 Serial communication with strings
20.1 Really Simple Sound20.2 Getting Started with Sonia and Minim20.3 Basic Sound Playback20.4 A Bit Fancier Sound Playback20.5 Live input20.6 Sound Thresholding
21.1 Web applets21.2 Stand-alone applications21.3 High-resolution PDFs21.4 Images/saveframe()21.5 Moviemaker
22.1 Encapsulation22.2 Inheritance22.3 An inheritance example: shapes22.4 Polymorphism22.5 Overloading
23.1 Revealing the wizard23.2 If we did not have Processing, what would our code look like?23.3 Exploring the java API23.4 Other useful java classes: Arraylist23.5 Other useful java classes: rectangle23.6 Exception (error) handling23.7 Java outside of Processing

Content preview from Learning Processing

Chapter 4

Variables

“All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value.”

—Carl Sagan

“Believing oneself to be perfect is often the sign of a delusional mind.”

—Lieutenant Commander Data

In this chapter:

- Variables: What are they?

- Declaring and initializing variables.

- Common uses for variables.

- Variables you get “for free” in Processing (AKA “built-in” variables).

- Using random values for variables.

4.1 What is a variable?

I admit it. When I teach programming, I launch into a diatribe of analogies in an attempt to explain the concept of a variable in an intuitive manner. On any given day, I might say “A variable is like ...