Overview \ Platforms \ Export

The Processing Environment 
	(IDE) runs on various Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X operating systems. Programs written with
Processing run on various versions of Java.

Supported Platforms
Windows
Mac OS X
Linux
Other Platforms
Java Versions

Top Supported Platforms

The Processing Development Environment (PDE) is currently tested on:

  1. Mac OS X 10.4.11 (PPC and Intel)
  2. Mac OS X 10.5.3 (Intel)
  3. Windows XP SP3
  4. Windows Vista SP1
  5. Ubuntu Linux (7.10 on i686, 8.04 on x86_64)
These are the operating systems that are on machines at the Processing Release Testing And Quality Assurance Center (the PRTAQAC, which bears a suspicious resemblance to Ben's apartment). Builds usually get the most testing on OS X 10.4. If you run into trouble, you've gotta let us know, the PRTAQAC is badly understaffed.

Top Windows XP and Vista

Windows, and to a lesser extent, Linux, are by far the superior platform for running Java applications. It's not because we like Windows (we don't) but that's just how it is.

The release is split into versions with and without Java. The non-Java version is only recommended for people who know what they're doing and have JDK 1.5 installed. If you have trouble getting Processing to run properly, one of the first things you should try is downloading the version that includes Java, rather than the one without.

If Processing does not start, try running it from a command prompt with the following:

.\processing.exe --l4j-debug
This will create a launch4j.log file which will describe what's happening during the startup. Then you can post on the discourse section of the site to inquire for help, or the bugs database if you think it's a bug.

It's not possible to use Processing with Windows 98, ME, or 2000. Recent Server editions are not supported, though they should work. 64-bit versions of Vista or XP will likely work but we don't have resources to test and debug for them.

Top Mac OS X

Java on Mac OS X has always dragged behind other platforms. Java performance on the Intel Macs is improved significantly over PowerPC machines, on which Java ran almost half the speed. Unfortunately Apple management seems to have a completely arrogant attitude about Java and wants developers to build their applications using Cocoa, seemingly unaware of their current marketshare. For best performance, use Processing with Windows XP.

More information about Java on OS X can be found at Apple's Java FAQ.

Top Linux

On Linux, the Processing application is just a shell script. If you set up a launcher (e.g. in Ubuntu), be sure to set the working directory to the folder that contains the shell script. It's not smart enough to find its own path. (If you can write a version that's smarter, please let us know).

Most problems on Linux come from the version of Java that's included in the download being incompatible with the OS. Replacing (or making a symlink to) the contents of the ‘java’ folder will let you tie in a preferred Java VM for your machine. This must be a symlink to a full JDK, not a JRE. Be sure that the symlink is set up relative to the ‘processing’ shell script such that ./java/bin/java points to the ‘java’ binary.

Note that the GNU Classpath, GCJ, GIJ combination will not work with Processing. You'll need a regular Java release downloaded from Sun. OpenJDK and IcedTea are also unlikely to work, however we'll update this as those projects progress.

If you get Processing to run properly, the Sketch → Show Sketch Folder command may not be available. Processing will attempt to find kde-open and gnome-open, and if neither is available, the menu item will be dimmed. To fix this, you must set a launcher for your platform. Add a line to ~/.processing/preferences.txt that specifies its location:
launcher.linux = /path/to/launcher_app


Top Other Platforms

Because Processing is written in Java, it should run on any platform that supports Java 1.5. If you'd like to get it running on BSD, Irix, AmigaOS, BeOS... whatever, do the following:

  1. Download the Linux version, and replace the “java” folder and jikes application with versions that support your platform. The files can by symbolic links to your Java Runtime installation (note how the folder hierarchy works to make sure you're linking the right thing) or Jikes executable.
  2. Next, mess with the shell script if necessary to get things up and running.
  3. If you have success, share the details for others.

Top Java Versions

There are several versions of Java, each with a different story. The versions from 1.2 to 1.4 are also referred to with names like "Java 2 SDK 1.2" or "J2SE 1.4" (Java 2 Standard Edition 1.4). J2SE is different from the trimmed-down J2ME ("Micro Edition") which runs on mobile devices, and J2EE ("Enterprise Edition") which contains more "enterprise" related bloat. In a moment of further anti-user marketing genius, Sun decided to call the next release "Java 5.0" when promoting, but it's Java 1.5 to developers. Proving that they could outdo themselves in idiocy, the release that followed is called JDK 6.