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which book? (Read 1273 times)

davidhunter

which book?
Feb 11^th, 2008, 11:41pm

hi there,

i'm just getting started in Processing and was wondering whether anyone would recommend either the Processing Handbook ( j.maeda, c.reas, b.fry) or Processing Creative Code (i.greenberg). are they very different or is it much of a muchness? i've had trouble finding a copy of the Processing Handbook in the UK.

i'm looking for a comprehensive guide to Processing right from the basics. i'm a designer but have a fair amount of experience with Actionscript and i would like to learn Processing 'properly' rather than stumbling through as i have done with Flash. eventually i would like to work on physically interactive projects. i'll probably get Making Things Talk (t.igoe) to help me with this.

do my experience or aims suggest i should choose either of the books in prefernce over the other?

thanks for the advice,

david

heyotwell

Re: which book?
Reply #1 - Feb 12^th, 2008, 5:16am

davidhunter wrote on Feb 11^th, 2008, 11:41pm:

i'm just getting started in Processing and was wondering whether anyone would recommend either the Processing Handbook ( j.maeda, c.reas, b.fry) or Processing Creative Code (i.greenberg).

My impression is that the Reas/Fry book is a little more general, and looks at Processing from a slightly broader set of views. It seems slightly more, um, useful. If you want to move on to Making Things Talk, it seems like Reas/Fry might give you a better foundation. The addition of interviews with other artists and programmers is nice, too.

Greenberg, to me, seems much more focussed on math (though it also covers programming basics). If you're interested in the generative-art aesthetic of mathematical complexity, it might be more comprehensive. It's got a ton of useful algorithms in it.

You might also find you prefer one or the other just in terms of instructional style. I think you can download a couple of chapters of each from the publishers (MIT Press for Reas/Fry, and FriendsofEd for Greenberg) that would give you a pretty good taste.

davidhunter

Re: which book?
Reply #2 - Feb 12^th, 2008, 10:35am

thanks for the advice, i had a look at the creative code book in a shop and i liked its writing style, but i also wanted to check the handbook in case it had more in it. i've downloaded the sample chapters of the handbook so if i like the writing style it sounds like thats the one.

now all i'll have to do is find a copy for sale in the UK!

cheers,

david

javier.arantegui

Re: which book?
Reply #3 - Feb 12^th, 2008, 4:17pm

If it is difficult in UK, try to find it in a small town in Spain.

My soultion was to order it (yesterday) to "The book depository". I don't type the webaddress because I don't have any comertial relationship with them, but it should be easy to find. Usually, they are quite cheap and fast and the delivery is free to everywhere.

Note to the administrators: If this post is considered a form of spam, just delete it or tell me and I'll do it. I don't want to behave badly.

braitsch

Re: which book?
Reply #4 - Feb 13^th, 2008, 8:18am

I just bought the handbook (blue cover) on Sunday and love it.
It's a great introduction to Java, which is what the Processing API is based on. The creative code book seems to explore much more of the theory behind computational design and while it does have examples throughout, the handbook is more of a cookbook style approach that allows you to jump quickly around chapters to brush up on how to accomplish a certain task. The handbook also includes interviews or say case studies that explore what can be done with Processing however I haven't gotten that far as to have read many of them yet. One other nice feature of the handbook is that the chapters are organized by category and by level of complexity.
e.g. The chapters are labeled Math1, Data1, Drawing1, so you can easily read all the level one chapters in a row, or read through Math1, Math2, Math3... in sequence if that's your thing.

davidhunter YaBB Newbies Offline Posts: 14	Re: which book? Reply #5 - Feb 13^th, 2008, 7:58pm thanks for all the feedback, looks like i'll go with the handbook(blue cover) and check out that bookdepository site. cheers a lot, david

davidhunter YaBB Newbies Offline Posts: 14	Re: which book? Reply #6 - Feb 23^rd, 2008, 6:07pm just ordered the book from the book depository site, it says it usually delivers in 2-3 days, javier how long did it take for your book to arrive? i don't want to get my hopes up that it will be here in the following week if the book is hard to track down! thanks

javier.arantegui

Re: which book?
Reply #7 - Feb 23^rd, 2008, 10:46pm

Mine arrived on last Thursday. It took 10 days to arrive to my home in Spain. Probably in your case it will take a little bit less time, if you live in UK. When they say that they will deliver the book in 2-3 days I think they haven't got the book in stock, and they deliver it after that periood. Then you should add 2-3 days more to arrive to you. But don't quote me about this, I'm not a user of the Royal Mail.

I just gave a quick look to the book and it looks very good. It's easy to read and there are a lot of examples. The interviews seem to be very inspiring.

Javier

davidhunter YaBB Newbies Offline Posts: 14	Re: which book? Reply #8 - Feb 24^th, 2008, 12:12pm thanks javier, i got an email from them saying 5 days, so maybe this week maybe next, but with royal mail who knows! all the best, david

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