Hey everyone,

I'm fairly new to Processing and must admit that I am not that great of a programmer. I am working on a project right now that integrates Java with Processing.

Here is the jist of my problem; I have an ellipse that can be dragged and dropped as well as stationary ellipses that are randomly placed on screen. I want to be able to move the draggable ellipse so that it can be placed behind a number of the stationary ellipses. I am trying to figure out what I must do in order for the program to return to me how many and which of the stationary ellipses have the draggable ellipse placed behind it.

I hope that makes sense. I've modified the "MouseFunctions" example from Processing to give you an example of what I mean (keep in mind that the stationary ellipses are not randomly placed in this example).

/**
* Mouse Functions.
* Click on the box and drag it across the screen.
*/

float bx;
float by;
int bs = 30;
boolean bover = false;
boolean locked = false;
float bdifx = 0.0;
float bdify = 0.0;


void setup()
{
 size(200, 200);
 bx = width/2.0;
 by = height/2.0;
 ellipseMode(CENTER_RADIUS);  
}

void draw()
{
 background(0);
 // Test if the cursor is over the ellipse
 if (mouseX > bx-bs && mouseX < bx+bs &&
     mouseY > by-bs && mouseY < by+bs) {
   bover = true;  
   if(!locked) {
     fill(153);
   }
 } else {
   fill(153);
   bover = false;
 }
 
 // Draw the center ellipse
 smooth();
 ellipse(bx, by, bs, bs);
 
 // Draw the stationary ellipses
 ellipse(80, 30, 5, 5);
 ellipse(30, 30, 5, 5);
 ellipse(40, 60, 5, 5);
 ellipse(40, 30, 5, 5);
 ellipse(30, 75, 5, 5);
 ellipse(60, 10, 5, 5);
 ellipse(40, 100, 5, 5);
 ellipse(150, 150, 5, 5);
 ellipse(130, 160, 5, 5);
}

void mousePressed() {
 if(bover) {
   locked = true;
   fill(255, 255, 255);
 } else {
   locked = false;
 }
 bdifx = mouseX-bx;
 bdify = mouseY-by;

}

void mouseDragged() {
 if(locked) {
   bx = mouseX-bdifx;
   by = mouseY-bdify;
 }
}

void mouseReleased() {
 locked = false;
}

Like I said, I am new to this stuff so please be kind =) If anyone has any ideas or advice, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks to anyone who took the time to read this!