A few weeks back, I wrote a post titled "Don't learn ActionScript!" My point then was that if you're new to programming and Flash is your tool of choice, then ActionScript may be the first language you learn, but it's always a good idea to realize that AS is one of many languages that share several common parts. To me, this idea was empowering when I first figured it out. It meant that I wasn't just learning some esoteric codes, but that I was learning basic concepts that transferred to other languages.

In that post, I mentioned Processing as a language worth looking at. Well, one of the creators of that language, Casey Reas, spoke at SIGGRAPH, and I want to bring it back up because of it. Processing is "created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook and professional production tool. Processing is developed by artists and designers as an alternative to commercial software tools in the same domain."

I was really impressed by Casey's preso. I really like that Processing is meant to be a teaching language (they're not trying to take over the world here....just the classroom), and I really like that it is meant to work within the "visual context." In most intro to programming courses, you're lucky to output some text to the screen, Processing blows that concept out of the water, and the depth of work on the project site is really amazing.

Processing is Java based and the default is to output an HTML page with the JAR file for web deployment. The other default is to include source code for others to learn from your work (very much like Mike Chambers' View Flash Source library), an idea which I really like.

So if you're looking to sharpen your prgramming chops or just looking for an interesting prototyping app, then check out Processing! Now, if only someone would write the Processing to AS port...