# How to access 'system variable' directly in Python code?

**URL:** <https://discourse.processing.org/t/how-to-access-system-variable-directly-in-python-code/35550>\
**Category:** Processing.py\
**Created:** [March 4, 2022, 11:01am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/how-to-access-system-variable-directly-in-python-code/35550 "2022-03-04T11:01:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![villares](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/villares/32/3166_2.png) [@villares](https://discourse.processing.org/u/villares)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2022, 2:45pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/how-to-access-system-variable-directly-in-python-code/35550/2 "2022-03-04T14:45:32Z")

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The command line feature that allows one to use Processing Python mode outside the Processing IDE is not currently maintained, unfortunately. I always had a hard time making it work. There was some discussion on using it with Atom: [How to run Processing Python Mode in Atom? - #3 by BeastCoder](https://discourse.processing.org/t/how-to-run-processing-python-mode-in-atom/16225/3) and maybe VS Code but I couldn’t find them right now.

I’m unfamiliar with the kind of instantiation you are doing. For simple sketches  
one should be able to just use the global name `frameCount`, I believe. 😕

Another idea, if you want to integrate with modern Python libraries, would be to use a completely external Python 3 environment using [py5](http://py5.ixora.io) (Python 3 + Java with JPype) or [p5py](https://github.com/p5py/p5) (Python 3, no Java) instead. 🙂

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