Processing Month, Day 20 - Optimize your Workflow with Processing Tools

Today we’re going to take a break from coding and discuss Processing Tools. You can find these tools under the Tools menu. You probably know about the Create Font tool and the Color Selector tool, both included with Processing. You can find all available tools on the Processing website.

Just like Processing Libraries, it’s also possible to create your own and install them in the tools folder, next to your libraries folder. But there aren’t many available yet. I discovered a really handy one this week through Cedric Kiefer: InitSketch. Another tool I’m using is “Export as Processing.js”.

InitSketch

This is probably the most useful tool made for Processing. Inside the folder, there is a file named “template.txt”. You can add some boilerplate code inside that file. The tool will add that code to your editor when you use it. You’ll never need to type things like void setup() again.

Export as Processing.js

This tool is is just like using on Menu > Export Applet. It creates a web page with all code you’ll need to run your sketch in a browser. Just like InitSketch, you can also create your own templates. The HTML and JavaScript files are in the templates folder of the Processing.js tool.