Processing.js for Processing Devs

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Processing.js Quick Start - Processing Developer Edition

Introduction

This quick start guide is written from the standpoint of a Processing developer. No HTML or JavaScript knowledge is assumed, and only basic Processing knowledge is necessary.

Why Processing.js?

The Processing language was created at much the same time that the web was starting. At this time the choice of the Java language, and Java Runtime, as implementation targets for Processing made a lot of sense. In the mid-1990s, Java was poised to become the language of the web, with Applets and other Java technologies being used broadly on the client-side. Even Netscape, who created the language which would eventually become the lingua franca of the web with JavaScript, named their language so as to align themselves with the growing hype around Java.

In the end, Java became an important server side technology, receding from the client-side and browser. Today, most web browsers still support Java Applets, by means of a binary plugin. However, few web developers deploy Java-based web apps now, due to load times and difficulties relying on Java (or compatible Java versions) being installed. This trend is not isolated to Java, but is happening to all browser plugins (e.g., Flash), which are becoming less popular as issues of security, installation, deployment, etc. make them inconvenient or risky.

Another reason that plugins like Java and Flash have fallen out of favour is that recent advances in standard web technologies, specifically HTML5 and JavaScript, have made it possible to do things that previously depended on native (i.e., faster) code. Companies like Google, with GMail and Google Docs, or Scribd (see http://www.scribd.com/doc/30964170/Scribd-in-HTML5) have shown that HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are enough to build fast, full featured web applications.