Processing is all of the following:
Processing programs are written without the “overhead” of Java classes, constructors, exceptions, or events. Almost all Processing programs are written using a succinctly documented API.
Processing has been used in CSCI 182 and CSCI 273 (ST: Processing) since the Spring 2009 semester. These courses have always been considered an appropriate prerequisite for CSCI 202.
The Processing IDE has a preprocessor that transforms Processing into Java.
The preprocessor adds appropriate modifiers, such as public,
to method definitions. It also makes minor source code changes such as
changing Processing-style casting, int(x), to
calls to Processing methods, PApplet.parseInt(x),
and
changing Processing-style colors, #A52A2A, to
integers, 0xFFA52A2A.
Most importantly, the preprocessor wraps the Processing program
inside a Java class.
The Java program must import and extend the PApplet
class which is implemented in the jar file
core.jar distributed with Processing.
The PApplet has a
well-documented Javadoc file
that describes most of the operators of the Processing API.
It is possible to write Processing programs using plug-ins for either Eclipse or NetBeans. Many programmer prefer these IDE’s because they make the task of writing and debugging large programs easier.