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Processing

EDTECH
Velocity3.8

Flexible software sketchbook for learning to code

processing.org ↗

Processing is shipping again — and quietly moved its renderer onto wgpu.

creative-codingrenderer-rewritewgpugradle-migrationrelease-cadenceopen-source
◆Current state
Processing spent much of 2025 with a stalled release train; 4.5.4 in June explicitly marked the restart, and three releases have landed since. The work splits in two: build and release plumbing (the Ant-to-Gradle migration now sitting on Gradle 9.x, a release workflow that survives a failed macOS notarization) and an editor-shell refresh built on Jetpack Compose and Material 3. Contributor volume is the other signal — most release notes are lists of first-time PRs rather than maintainer work.
◆Where it's heading
The plumbing work is close to finished, which frees attention for the graphics stack. `the-wgpu-moment`, a branch open for nearly a year, is now merged into main, pointing Processing away from Java plus OpenGL through JOGL. Expect the next stretch to be about making that path usable and testable rather than about the editor UI.
◆Prediction
The likely next move is exposing the wgpu renderer behind an opt-in flag with an open call for testers, while the 4.5.x line continues as the stable Gradle and Compose track.

◆Recent moves

  1. 16d ago

    wgpu renderer branch lands in main, Gradle 9.1 upgrade

    ⚡ SPARK

    The release that closes the plumbing chapter and opens the renderer one: Gradle moves to 9.x and the year-old `the-wgpu-moment` branch is merged into main. The maintainers are careful to say it is not yet made to be explored, which puts Processing at the start of a graphics-stack transition rather than the end.

    View source ↗
  2. 1mo ago

    macOS hotfix: codesign entitlements restored

    A next-day hotfix for a macOS build signed without the JIT entitlement, which left the shipped app unable to run compiled code. It is exactly the class of failure the reworked release workflow in 4.5.4 was built to contain.

    View source ↗
  3. 1mo ago

    Releases restart; workflow survives failed notarization

    The release that restarted a stalled train, though the more durable change is the workflow behind it: a failed macOS notarization no longer forces a version bump, and Maven and Gradle publish only once every platform build succeeds. That reliability work is what makes the cadence in the releases above possible.

    View source ↗
  4. 5mo ago

    PMatrix print(), Gradle plugin for libraries, Windows runner

    Maintenance-heavy, but three items reach users: a print() method on PMatrix for debugging, a Gradle plugin for Processing libraries, and the ability to run a sketch from anywhere on Windows. The library plugin is the Gradle migration finally arriving for third-party authors rather than just the core build.

    View source ↗
  5. 6mo ago

    CLI fixes, JOGL 2.6 bump, preferences fallback

    Dependency bumps and small CLI corrections — custom main-file names, a fixed help link, preferences falling back to defaults when the file will not parse. Nothing here changes what a sketch can do.

    View source ↗
  6. 6mo ago

    Welcome and Preferences screens rebuilt in Jetpack Compose

    The Welcome and Preferences screens are rebuilt on Jetpack Compose and Material Design 3, plus a fix for a splash screen that froze mid-fade. This is the first user-visible payoff of the toolchain work, and it shows the editor shell being modernized in place rather than replaced.

    View source ↗