From Processing

NOTE: This feature was disabled with PROCESSING 2.0b4 (REV 0212) - 21 October 2012. This entry only applies to prior versions of Processing

While the Processing Development Environment is great for writing sketches, you may decide that you'd rather use a different editor for writing your sketches. You can make this easier to do by opening up the preferences window (Processing -> Preferences on OSX, File -> Preferences on Linux and Windows) and checking "Use external editor". When this option is set, the PDE editor background will turn gray to indicate that it is locked and you cannot edit files with it.

Creating a New Sketch

When using an external editor, new sketches must be manually created.

1. Create a folder "SketchName"
2. Inside that folder, create the file SketchName.pde. This file must have the same name as the folder. It is the main file of your sketch, and is expected to contain setup() and draw().

To get this sketch to show up in your sketchbook, the folder "SketchName" will need to be located in the sketchbook folder and the PDE will need to be restarted. If you don't know what folder is designated as your sketchbook folder, you can find it in the preferences window.

Editing an Existing Sketch

1. Open the sketch in the PDE, either from your sketchbook or using File -> Open
2. Open and modify sketch files in the editor of your choice
3. Save any changes
4. In the PDE, run or export the sketch as you would if you wrote it in the PDE. The files are reloaded before every action, so they will incorporate any changes you've made in your external editor.

From inside the PDE you can also use Sketch -> Add File... or Tools -> Create Font... as you normally would. Importing libraries or other functions of the PDE that modify the sketch's code will not be able to modify the sketch, however, and you will have to add the appropriate code yourself.

Related Links

• JEdit as External IDE