Code Toolkit: Python, Spring 2025

Week 1 — Homework assignment

Due: Thursday, January 30, 8pm

  1. Review this week's lecture notes.

  2. If you have not already done so, download and install version 3.5.4 of the Processing PDE. My instructions are here (PDF) . NOTE: Make sure to follow the instructions there to install this older version of Processing (3.5.4).

  3. Create a sketch on paper. If you want some inspiration, you might consider the robot drawings in the Getting Started with Processing book — for example on pages 2 and 89 (that's pages 5 and 33 in the PDF). This book is mentioned on the resources page and is highly optional so I don't recommend that you buy it. I have included a PDF for you to take a look at with some of the relevant pages.

  4. Drawing with numbers. Approximate some x,y points on your drawing, or maybe approximate some grid lines (pages 15-17 in the Getting Started book may offer some help), or, if you are on Mac, you can use the screencapture utility to "measure" pixel values. Using some of the various Processing draw primitives, create a sketch in Processing that creates your drawing. See py.processing.org/reference for more help on other types of shapes, known as "2D Primitives".

  5. Raster images. Based on the example at the end of this week's lecture notes (with more information in the Getting Started book on pages 89-90), add one (or more) image files to your sketch, and in your code create a PImage load the image using loadImage() (Note: I modified this sentence for clarity. Sorry for any confusion -Rory) and draw it to the screen using image(). Note the difference between this method and the previous one. Think about the advantages and disadvantages of each. Think about how might go about reszing these different images. What would that look like in each case?

  6. Visit the help page, read the instructions there, create a GitHub account, and post a Gist to send to me. If you don't actually have a coding question, that's fine — you can just post a Gist of the code you're working on. I just want everyone to get comfortable using this.

  7. Save your work as "Week 01" (please use this precise naming scheme for weekly assignments to help me find your work throughout the semester), and upload the entire sketch folder to your folder in the Student Google Drive (linked from the Resources page).

  8. Please note that next week we will also have our first reading discussion. Please read pages 18-55 in the Lev Manovich book, The Language of New Media. Details are listed on the schedule page under Week 2.