Part I of this book is an introduction not only to writing code and working with hardware, but also to the three tools that you’ll be learning about in this book: Processing, Arduino, and openFrameworks. You’ll learn about writing software in general and about writing code for each of the three platforms in particular. Each of the three platforms approaches the applications that you’ll use to actually write code in a slightly different way, but the general concepts of working with the code are the same across all three. One thing you’ll come to realize as you learn more about programming is that the core concepts of programming are quite similar across a lot of different programming languages. This means that the knowledge you have about Processing, for instance, can help you if you decide to create a project using Arduino. Understanding how these different frameworks are similar will help you leverage your knowledge in one to work with the other. Understanding how they’re different will help you choose the right one for the kind of project that you want to create.

Chapter 1, Introducing Interaction Design, will give you an introduction into what interactive design means and the tools available to build interactivity. In Chapter 2, Programming Basics, you’ll be introduced to the fundamental concepts of programming. There you’ll learn how programming an application works, learn what code really is, see some of the key terminology and concepts, and get ready to dive into actually writing code in each of the three programming tools that you’ll be exploring. Chapter 3, Processing, introduces you to the Processing language and environment and shows you some code to get you started working with video, sound, images, and simple graphics. Chapter 4, Arduino, introduces the Arduino language, hardware platform, and environment. Since the Arduino platform consists of a programming language, a hardware device, and an IDE that you use to write code, you’ll be learning about how to use all three. In Chapter 5, Programming Revisited, you’ll learn about some more advanced topics in programming that will prepare you to work with openFrameworks, like classes and object-oriented programming. Finally, in Chapter 6, openFrameworks, you’ll be introduced to the C++ programming language and the openFrameworks way of using it.

This first part might involve taking a lot of first steps for you, but once you have stepped your way through it, you’ll understand a great deal about three tools that can help you build almost any kind of interactive project by creating your own hardware and software.