Hello,

I'm new to processing, and am working on several sketches which use input from the keyboard to set parameters for specific animations.

I'm having trouble conjuring the code (or finding appropriate code/libraries to borrow from  ) to create an input text field which will then generate info based on the stored text.

I.E. Like a chat client, where you type your message, then hit "send", except rather than seeing that message appear, it's contents will be used as input for a separate function.

Here is an example of what I've got so far:

PFont drawFont;
char[] nextPhrase, drawPhrase;
float[] xLocation, yLocation, xDestination, yDestination;
int nextCharIndex = 0;  
int numChars = 40;

void setup() {
 size(720, 480);
 nextPhrase = new char[numChars];
 drawPhrase = new char[numChars];
 xLocation = new float[numChars];
 yLocation = new float[numChars];
 xDestination = new float[numChars];
 yDestination = new float[numChars];

 for(int ii = 0; ii < numChars; ii++) {
   nextPhrase[ii] = ' ';
   drawPhrase[ii] = ' ';
   xLocation[ii] = 0;
   yLocation[ii] = 0;
   xDestination[ii] = 0;
   yDestination[ii] = 0;
 }

 smooth();
 fill(255);

 drawFont = loadFont("HelveticaNeue-24.vlw");

 textFont(drawFont);
}

void draw() {
 background(0);

 for(int ii = 0; ii < numChars; ii++) {

   text(drawPhrase[ii], xLocation[ii], yLocation[ii]);

   if(abs(xLocation[ii] - xDestination[ii]) > 0.1) {

     xLocation[ii] = xLocation[ii] + ((xDestination[ii] - xLocation[ii]) / 10);

   } else {
     xLocation[ii] = xDestination[ii];
   }

   if(abs(yLocation[ii] - yDestination[ii]) > 0.1) {
     yLocation[ii] = yLocation[ii] + ((yDestination[ii] - yLocation[ii]) / 10);
   } else {
     yLocation[ii] = yDestination[ii];
   }    
 }
}

void keyPressed() {
 

 nextPhrase[nextCharIndex] = key;


 nextCharIndex = (nextCharIndex + 1) % numChars;
}

void mousePressed() {

 nextCharIndex = 0;
 float kerningWidth = 0;
 for(int ii = 0; ii < numChars; ii++) {

   drawPhrase[ii] = nextPhrase[ii];

   xLocation[ii] = random(720);
   yLocation[ii] = random(480);

   xDestination[ii] = mouseX + kerningWidth;
   yDestination[ii] = mouseY;

   nextPhrase[ii] = ' ';

   kerningWidth = kerningWidth + textWidth(drawPhrase[ii]); // total character width so far
 }
}

But I want the message to be displayed AS you type it, with dynamic, selectable text like in the text fields in the Interfascia library.  I would just use that library, but as a newbie to processing I don't know how to work with custom libraries.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!  Thanks.

- Tmnt