How Processing and P5 got newbies Into art and coding #Processing @pomeranian99

The creators of the Processing programming language, which is now 20 years old, did it right.

To “create artsy stuff with code”, though, it really helps to have a language that was designed specifically for the purpose of “creating artsy stuff with code”.

And that is why Processing and P5 — the version of Processing made for JavaScript and the web — rock. They’re languages created specifically for doing “creative coding”, and making stuff with art.

Because Processing was first created 20 years ago, eye on design recently did a very cool oral history of how it, and P5, came to be. (Part one is here; part two is here.)

There are a number of things the folks behind Processing and P5 did right, such as:

• To get people into coding, let them build stuff *right away*
• “Play” and culture are key to getting folks interested
• Putting it in the browser
• Having a friendly culture is crucial

Creating culture requires tons of work; it can’t be automated. But once a good culture is in place it can create wonderful forward inertia.

Read the entire piece by Clive Thompson on Medium.