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Learning Processing: A Beginner's Guide to Programming Images ...

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Introduction<br />

What is this book?<br />

Th is book tells a s<strong>to</strong>ry. It is a s<strong>to</strong>ry of liberation, of taking the fi rst steps <strong>to</strong>ward understanding the<br />

foundations of computing, writing your own code, and creating your own media without the bonds of<br />

existing software <strong>to</strong>ols. Th is s<strong>to</strong>ry is not reserved for computer scientists and engineers. Th is s<strong>to</strong>ry is<br />

for you.<br />

Who is this book for?<br />

Th is book is for the beginner. If you have never written a line of code in your life, you are in the right<br />

place. No assumptions are made, and the fundamentals of programming are covered slowly, one by one,<br />

in the fi rst nine chapters of this book. You do not need any background knowledge besides the basics of<br />

operating a computer—turning it on, browsing the web, launching an application, that sort of thing.<br />

Because this book uses <strong>Processing</strong> (more on <strong>Processing</strong> in a moment) , it is especially good for someone<br />

studying or working in a visual fi eld, such as graphic design, painting, sculpture, architecture, fi lm, video,<br />

illustration, web design, and so on. If you are in one of these fi elds (at least one that involves using a<br />

computer), you are probably well versed in a particular software package, possibly more than one, such as<br />

Pho<strong>to</strong>shop, Illustra<strong>to</strong>r, Au<strong>to</strong>CAD, Maya, After Eff ects, and so on. Th e point of this book is <strong>to</strong> release you,<br />

at least in part, from the confi nes of existing <strong>to</strong>ols. What can you make, what can you design if, instead of<br />

using someone else’s <strong>to</strong>ols, you write your own? If this question interests you, you are in the right place.<br />

If you have some programming experience, but are interested in learning about <strong>Processing</strong> , this book could<br />

also be useful. Th e early chapters will provide you with a quick refresher (and solid foundation) for the<br />

more advanced <strong>to</strong>pics found in the second half of the book.<br />

What is <strong>Processing</strong> ?<br />

Let’s say you are taking Computer Science 101, perhaps taught with the Java programming language.<br />

Here is the output of the fi rst example program demonstrated in class:

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