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9cadd71f40
o gets upset on osx if rxtx not installed during menu building X actually, it just throws UnsatisfiedLinkError X make a note in the readme, particularly wrt macos X readme additions X size() and background() need regular nums, no vars X hidden features/niceties X click sketch title to rename X mention shift-run for present mode X known issues X macos sketch window resizing strangely X win95/98/me version acts poorly or doesn't run X as approaches 1000 lines, editorconsole has arrayindexoutof bounds
314 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
314 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
PROCE55ING DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT
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RELEASE 0043 "ALPHA"
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2 AUGUST 2002
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(c) 2002, 2001 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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and Interaction Design Institute Ivrea
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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RELEASE NOTES & DEVELOPER SOAPBOX
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herein follows lots of random notes about this release. you'll have to
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pardon the chatty detail in some spots, as this will also serve as a
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response to many of the 'frequently asked questions' that we have.
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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GETTING STARTED
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double click the 'Proce55ing' application, and select something from
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the examples menu: File -> Open -> Examples. hit the 'run' button
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(which looks like the play button on a vcr or tape deck).
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lather, rinse, repeat as necessary.
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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REVISIONS & ROADMAP
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at least until the final "1.0" version, we'll be using four digit
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numbers for the release. we're calling revision "0043" (this one)
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alpha, which for us means "first publicly consumable app that can
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be used by early adopters".
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there will be a few more numbered releases leading up to a beta
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release. beta means that all the features are in, but not all the bugs
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are out. there are several known issues with the alpha release (thin
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lines, lack of alpha transparency, etc) that will need to be sorted
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out for beta.
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additional numbered releases will follow, leading up to 1.0, a
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version that we can actually proud of and that has a minimum number
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of bugs. hopefully this is not a *long* ways off, but...
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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I FOUND A BUG!
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we prefer to call them "issues."
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first, be sure to check under the notes for your specific platform to
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make sure it isn't a known issue or that there isn't a simple fix.
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you can either post to the bulletin board at:
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http://proce55ing.net/discourse/
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or send email to bugs@proce55ing.net. the bboard is probably the
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better way to go, because more people will be watching it. the email
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goes straight to the developers, but their schedules are erratic and
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it could be anywhere from two minutes to two weeks before you receive
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a response.
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when reporting this "bug" please include information about
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1. the revision number (i.e. 0043)
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2. what operating system you're using, on what kind of hardware
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3. a copy of your code
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4. details of the error, which may be the last few lines from
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the files stdout.txt or stderr.txt from the 'lib' folder.
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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GENERAL NOTES / COMMON MISTAKES
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- size() must use numbers, not variables. this is because of how
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the size command is interpreted by proce55ing.
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- when using draw() mode, background() must also use only numbers, and
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no variables. this is similar to the issue with the size command,
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because in both cases, Proce55ing needs to know the size and
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background color of the app before it starts, so since variables
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are determined while the program is running, things break.
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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GOODIES & SEMI-HIDDEN FEATURES
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- shift-click on the 'run' button to go straight to 'present' mode
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- for quick renaming, just click on the sketch title
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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PLATFORMS
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the processing development environment runs best on:
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1. windows 2000/XP
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2. mac os x
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3. linux
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4. mac os 9
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5. windows 95/98/ME
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our priority for how well the beast runs looks like:
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1. windows & mac os x (tied for first)
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3. mac os 9
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4. windows 95/98/ME (because we must)
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5. linux
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windows is the superior platform for running java applications. it's
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not because we like windows the best, so sorry to the zealots in all
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other corners of the machine space, but that's just how it is. the vm
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for mac os x is really quite good (especially when compared to apple's
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previous efforts), but it's still a bit behind. we think os x will be
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a great bet for the future, and apple is putting all their feeble
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weight behind it, so hopefully it will evolve somewhere.
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developing the version for mac os 9 is a big headache, but we think
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lots of people still use the crusty operating system, so we're going
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to keep supporting it for the meantime. the guess is that a lot of
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schools are still using it in their labs, and since schools are a
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significant target for the environment, we gotta play along.
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windows 95/98/ME is a piece of crap, but since lots of people (are
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often forced to) use it, we'll try and support. early alpha versions
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seem to be having trouble with 95/98/ME, but it'll run better in the
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future.
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for the linux version, you guys can support yourselves. if you're
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enough of a hacker weenie to get a linux box setup, you oughta know
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what's going on. for lack of time, we won't be testing extensively
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under linux, but would be really happy to hear about any bugs or
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issues you might run into. actually, we don't get happy that you're
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having issues, but if you're going to have issues, we're happy that
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you tell us about them, so we can fix them.
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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MAC OS X
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processing runs best with (and probably requires) Mac OS X 10.1 and
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"Java 1.3.1 Update 1", the latter of which is available as a free
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update from the "Software Update" control panel. it can also be
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downloaded from http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/ or
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from: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/java131.html
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with os x 10.2 on its way, you'll no longer need the java update,
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but we'll have to see if we can afford being gouged $129 for the
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upgrade in order to do some testing under this cat-themed operating
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system.
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another issue under osx.. it appears that there's a bug in their java
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vm with text areas, so as a result, the arrow keys won't work in the
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editor. we think this really stinks and are searching for options for
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a (near?) future release.
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"Caught java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError" on startup...
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in order to use the serial port under macosx, you'll need to install
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RXTX, the serial port driver. this is for more advanced users, and the
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package is included with the p5 download, and includes its own
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instructions.
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resizing windows.. there's some weirdness with resizing windows under
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osx due to apple's strangely strict interpretation of the java api
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spec. sometimes windows can only get larger but not smaller, or become
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constrained in a particular direction. this will be repaired in the
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future.
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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MAC OS 9
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java applications on classic mac os are in a bad state, as apple has
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decided (rightfully so) to abandon further development of their java
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runtime.
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speed: this version runs very slowly. the first time you hit the 'run'
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button, it might take a while to bring up the actual
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program. hopefully after that, things will improve.
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versions: this version has only been tested under Mac OS 9.2.2.
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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WINDOWS
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win2k works well, reports point to xp working well also. win95/98/me
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seems to have lots of trouble, but it's just with the .exe that we
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use, so that'll get fixed in the future.
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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WHAT IS SKETCHBOOK?
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we think most "integrated development environments" (microsoft visual
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studio, codewarrior, jbuilder) tend to be overkill for the type of
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audience we're targeting with Proce55ing. for this reason, we've
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introduced the 'sketchbook' which is a more lightweight way to
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organize projects. as trained designers, we'd like the process of
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coding to be a lot more like sketching. the sketchbook and the
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'history' menu under 'sketch', are attempts in that direction.
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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EXTERNAL FILES / FONTS / READING DATA FILES
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if you want to use external files, like images or text files
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or fonts, they should be placed in a folder called 'data' inside:
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sketchbook -> default -> SKETCH_NAME
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starting with version 44, there are several functions that make
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dealing with data in files much easier (loadFile, loadStrings,
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splitStrings, etc) so file i/o should be fun!
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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SERIAL PORT
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the serial port is a useful way to hook things up to hardware
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devices of your own devising. the reference describes the specifics
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of how to use the serial port.
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the windows version works well, much better than in previous releases.
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on macos9, works fairly well with my keyspan usb/serial adapter. thank
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god for patrick beard and jdirect.
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on macosx, need rxtx to be installed (pkg included with p5 download),
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follow their bizarre instructions. on my machine, i'm using a keyspan
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28X dual port adapter, and the selection i use on the serial port menu
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reads "/dev/cu.USA28X21P1.1". your mileage may vary.
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linux.. haven't tested but it's the ibm vm and their own
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implementation, so it may just work.
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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PROCE55ING IS FREE TO DOWNLOAD / FREE TO USE
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we think it's important to have processing freely available, rather
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than selling it for a million dollars under some godawful yearly
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contract update scheme. to that end, we encourage people to distribute
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it widely and refer back to the site: http://Proce55ing.net
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on most of our own projects, we usually list them as "Built with
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Proce55ing" or something similar, with a link back to the site. of
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course this isn't a necessity, but it makes us happy when you do.
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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SOURCE CODE / OPEN SOURCE / GPL BLAH BLAH
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we plan for this project to be "open source", that trendy moniker
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which means that you'll be able to look at all the code that's behind
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the processing development environment and the graphics engine used in
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tandem with it. we can't promise, since we're still working on getting
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the licensing taken care of with our employers, but we think this
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should likely happen soon.
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the export libraries (also known as 'bagel') will probably be LGPL,
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which means they can be used as a library and included in your project
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without you having to open up your code (though we encourage people to
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share anyway).
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more information about the gnu public license can be found here:
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http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
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processing also includes other open projects, namely the oro matcher
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and the kjc compiler. the oro tools are distributed under a bsd style
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license as part of the apache jakarta project, and the kjc compiler is
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part of the kopi suite of tools, which is released under the gpl. so
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in fact, if the final, publicly available version of processing still
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uses kjc, the code for processing will have to be released gpl.
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more about the oro tools is at: http://www.savarese.org/oro/
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and the home for kopi/kjc is here: http://www.dms.at/kopi/
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we're sorry that the source code isn't available just yet, we're
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cleaning and scrubbing it, it was a decision between getting the alpha
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out to people to try versus taking a few more weeks to clean up the
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project and deal with the technology licensing departments at mit and
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ivrea. these things are far more difficult and time consuming than
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they would appear.
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