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→Introduction
The Processing language introduced by Ben Fry and Casey Reas is a simple and elegent language for data visualization that is already used by artists, educators as well as commercial media to deliver rich graphical content called sketches. There is a large body of work around the world which had been previously developed using Processing. However, this is largely not something that is consistently delivered through a web page. This is due to the fact that Processing was originally developed with Java and thus delivering Processing sketches required that the user install a Java plugin. Furthermore the sketches themselves were self contained items as opposed to being part of a web page. That is, the elements of the Document Object Model (DOM) of a webpage could not interact with it or vice versa. Thus, while it was possible to deliver visual content it would be difficult to create Processing sketches to take full advantage of modern web services such as flickr, twitter etc.
Processing.js is an open source, cross browser Javascript port of the Processing language. It uses the canvas element for rendering and does not require any plug-ins. However, Processing.js is more than just a Javascript implementation of the Processing languageparser written in JavaScript. It also enables the embedding of other web technologies into Processing sketches. This extension will allow for a new set of visualizations previously not possible. Processing.js seamlessly integrates web technologies with the processing language to provide an accessible framework for multimedia web applications.
==Background==
