Supported Platforms
From Processing
The Processing Development Environment (PDE) is currently tested on:
- Mac OS X 10.6 (only until 10.8 is released)
- Mac OS X 10.7
- Mac OS X 10.8 (once released)
- Windows XP (latest service pack only)
- Windows 7 (32-bit, limited testing on 64-bit)
- Ubuntu Linux 10.04 (on i686, limited on x86_64)
- Ubuntu Linux 12.04
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 10.7. If you run into trouble, you've gotta let us know, the PRTAQAC is badly understaffed.
Also check out the Troubleshooting page for platform-specific issues.
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Windows
Windows is generally the the best platform for running Java applications. It's not because we like Windows (we don't) but that's just how it is.
We are not supporting or testing with Windows Vista. We're going straight from Windows XP to Windows 7.
Using 64-bit Windows is discouraged, but more machines are starting to run 64-bit, so we're having to deal with that.
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 1.6 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.
It's not possible to use Processing with Windows 98, ME, or 2000. Recent Server editions are not supported, though they should work.
Mac OS X
Java on Mac OS X has always dragged behind other platforms.
- As of Processing 2.0, we recommend OS X 10.7 or later. It may run on 10.6 but we won't be fixing bugs with OS X 10.6, because we only have so much free time.
- In 2012, Apple turned over further development to the OpenJDK project, so we'll eventually be moving to Java 7 which will be released by Oracle. We'll keep an eye on how Java 7 develops, and future versions of Processing on OS X will likely include their own Java runtime just like the Windows and Linux versions.
- Processing is no longer supported PowerPC machines. I've sold my PowerPC Mac, and you should too.
Linux
With any luck, the Linux release should work fine by simply changing to the processing folder and typing
./processing
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. In that case, remove (or rename) the included ‘java’ folder, and replace it with a usable version of the JDK (not just the JRE!), or symlink it to a full JDK that's installed on your machine. Be sure that the symlink is set up relative to the ‘processing’ shell script such that ./java/bin/java points to the ‘java’ binary. Take a look at the folder structure of the included ‘java’ folder to see how it works.
Note that the GNU Classpath, GCJ, GIJ combination will not work with Processing. You'll need a regular Java release downloaded from Sun/Oracle.
OpenJDK and IcedTea still have problems, particularly with running sketches full screen or with multiple displays. We recommend using the version from Oracle.
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
Other Platforms
Because Processing is written in Java, it should run on any platform that supports Java 1.6. If you'd like to get it running on BSD, Irix, AmigaOS, BeOS... whatever, do the following:
- Download the Linux version, and replace the “java” folder with versions that support your platform. (See the Linux instructions about linking to a proper JDK).
- Next, mess with the shell script if necessary to get things up and running.
- If you have success, share the details for others.
OpenBSD
Users of OpenBSD can use the ports and packages framework to install Processing using the following command:
pkg_add processing
Please note this package is not created by the Processing team and any possible issues should initially be reported to the package maintainer.
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.
- Java 1.6 (or "Java 6") is required to run the 2.0 version of the Processing Development Environment and projects created with it.
- We're not sure when we'll be supporting Java 7.
- If you get an UnsupportedClassVersionError when using a library or other Java code, that means the code was compiled for a later version of Java than is supported by Processing. Recompile this code and set the 'target' to an earlier Java release (1.6 or earlier should do fine) and you'll be all set.