For a course I was taking part-time at Ryerson University, I had to use the Processing language to create a 2d animation. I wasn't keen on Processing at first because the language looks like Java but it isn't that bad because Processing lets you avoid the Java stuff by supplying its own functions to use.
I finished the course a few weeks ago, and for the final project I created a visualization of a few songs. While creating this project, I wrote a processing-mode for Emacs because I am very used to Emacs. While doing this, I noted a few times on the Processing forums that the command-line options are broken. I couldn't specify which preferences file the Processing Development Environment would use, and I found it difficult to get Processing running a sketch from within Emacs. I eventually figured it out, and thought that instead of whining about the code I could help out the community somehow.
A Hack Week for Processing
So here it is: Processing Hack Week. It will take place all day, every day starting on 28 January until 4 February 2009.
Basically, the week will focus on fixing bugs and adding features to Processing and its libraries. There will also be work done on improving the integration with other text editors and the derivative Processing projects like Ruby-Processing and Processing.js.
I have sent out emails to the project leaders for these projects and I am going to assemble a task list of bugs that need fixing and features that could be started on during the week of hacking.
And hey, even if you aren't a programmer and are just using Processing for a project, you might want to stop by the #processing channel on the FreeNode IRC server to tell us about it.
The whole week will be Processing-awesome in whatever form. More info will be posted here and I'll put up a web page with some info too.
Happy Boxing Day!
