The excellent Processing tool is being constantly improved, and I downloaded it again recently to see what fun could be had. I had embedded the actual app here as a Java applet, but support for applets is pretty bad so I’ve replaced it with a video.

There’s not much to it, but it’s something you could built more interesting stuff on.

Because Processing apps are Java in disguise, you can link in pretty much any existing Java library. Here I made use of the superb Phys2D library to simulate the falling.

Source code: Balls Helpers

One of my first attempts at making something interesting using Processing; try dragging lines on the canvas area with your mouse to see it in action.

It’s a very simple interactive particle simulation, painting the path of dots which randomly spawn more dots, resulting in a branching effect. A coloured circle where particles die makes it look like some blossoming plant.

For those interested, you can see the source code. It’s not the best-formed code ever, but since it’s only the result of some bored hacking in a Computer Science department one fine day, I can forgive myself.