Coding is the hot topic in education these days, so I decided to teach myself a computer language. I chose Processing, because it creates nice computer graphics, which I think will appeal to my students. I’m using Daniel Shiffman’s book, Learning Processing, which is very entertaining and understandable. He assumes the reader knows nothing about coding, and that’s a good thing in my case!
Processing uses simple commands like ellipse(centerX, centerY, width, height), or line(X1, Y1, X2, Y2). If you’re familiar with coordinate geometry, then coding in Processing is a piece of cake. And did I mention it’s open-source, which means it’s completely free? The Processing website (linked above) has a fantastic reference that covers all of the commands and their parameters.
Here is my first project, which is the result of working through the first three chapters. I think I’ll call him Hypno-Dog, because I made his eyes change color.
Nice one! Make sure to take a look at openprocessing.org which lets you upload your interactive sketches to share online.
Shiffman is pretty awesome and great fun to follow on Twitter, too.
Thanks for the tip, David!
Very good start, and am pretty new to coding as I am starting in c#. Your off to a really good start though, so that is always good.