IPPJ-Programming as a Creative Expression Lesson

Programming as a Creative Expression

 

Do you consider yourself creative? Creativity is the process used to create something new such as an idea, a painting, a musical composition, a solution, an invention, a program, or a game.  

It is used to solve problems, communicate ideas with others and just to entertain ourselves. The computer is a tool to foster creativity. Computers can be programmed to sense light, sound, heat, vision, and motion. The data can be used to produce output in software to create images, animations, simulations, visualizations, videos, sculptures, sounds, and other various programs.    

Processing is a programming language created by Ben Fry and Casey Reas for writing software to make images, animations, and interactions very quickly.  

It was developed initially as an extension to the Java programming language and shares a similar syntax.  Syntax is the required grammar and punctuation of the language. Since Processing uses the same syntax as JAVA you are actually learning JAVA as well. However, Processing has been designed in a way that makes it easier to create GUI programs because certain features have been abstracted.      

Processing consists of:                                                      

• The Processing Development Environment (PDE).
• A collection of functions (also referred to as commands or methods) that makes up the "core" programming interface, or API.
• A language syntax, identical to Java but with a few modifications.

Downloading the Software

Click here to view the instructions for downloading the software. and include this link:    Click the link here Links to an external site.
Please download Version 2.2.1

Processing Development Environment (PDE)

The Processing Development Environment (PDE) consists of a simple text editor for writing code, a message area, a text console, tabs for managing files, a toolbar with buttons for common actions, and a series of menus. The menus options change from mode to mode. The default Java mode is documented here.

 

Testing the Program
Please work through this so we know you have a working copy
of this software. Contact me immediately if you have problems.

Click on the Processing icon to open it.  

Click File → Save As

Give the sketch a unique name that you will remember.  It will be saved into a sketchbook folder.  

In the text editor of the PDE, create the Hello World by typing the following text exactly as it appears below:

println ("Hello World");

Press the "Run" button in the PDE which looks like a play button, or ctrl-r on your keyboard. The Processing Development Environment checks, compiles and executes (runs) your program. If all has gone well, you should get a result similar to the following image.

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