Processing 4 processing-java binary?

[glv]

Hello @SNitaine ,

@SNitaine

I haven’t found any documentation in the repository about working with Processing in an editor‑agnostic manner, and I’d prefer to avoid using the built‑in PDE.

This will set you free!

All you need is Java and the Processing core and libraries (included them all here):

And also the natives:

1. To compile the sketch:

javac -Xlint:all -cp .\windows-amd64\lib\core-4.4.10.jar *.java

2. To run the compiled sketch:

java -cp .\windows-amd64\lib\*;. -Djava.library.path=.\windows-amd64\lib\natives\windows-amd64 Sketch

Notes:

• You should run these commands in a terminal window (command prompt) where the Java Development Kit (JDK) is installed and available in your PATH.
• Make sure the core-4.4.10.jar and any other required libraries are in the specified windows-amd64\lib directory.

sketch.java (was generated by PDE and used as the template):

/* autogenerated by Processing revision 1310 on 2025-11-08 */

import processing.core.PApplet;

import processing.core.*;
import processing.data.*;
import processing.event.*;
import processing.opengl.*;

import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.PrintWriter;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;

public class Sketch extends PApplet 
  {
  Helper helper;
  
  public void setup()
    {    
    helper = new Helper();
        
    helper.printMessage(); 
    println();
        
    println("***** Sketch Output *****");
    println();
      
    /* size commented out by preprocessor */    ;
    println("sketchPath:", sketchPath());
    }

  public void draw()
    {
    background(0, 255, 0);
    }

  public void settings() 
    {
    size(300, 125, P3D);
    }

  static public void main(String[] passedArgs) 
    {
    println("In the beginning...");
    println();
    printArray(passedArgs);
    println();
    
    String[] appletArgs = new String[] { "Sketch" };

    if (passedArgs != null) 
      {
      PApplet.main(concat(appletArgs, passedArgs));
      } 
    else 
      {
      PApplet.main(appletArgs);
      }
    }
  }

helper.java:

public class Helper {
  
  public Helper() {
    // Constructor (if needed)
    System.out.println("I am here to help!");
  }

  public void printMessage() {
    System.out.println("Helper class message!");
  }
}

This took me a while to achieve!
At first I extracted the natives from the JAR files as an exercise.

It was much easier to export a project from the PDE and all the core, native and even Java were ready to go to be used for any future self-contained project.

I did use the PDE later to export a project which generated all the necessary files (Processing core and libraries, natives and Java from Processing) but it was NOT necessary… just a lot easier. I did manage without doing this but it was a challenge and I did learn a lot from it!

The files in the folders can be reduced to a more minimal set.
I will leave that as as an exercise.

I also have the the java compile and run in a batch file:

The above was shared to demonstrate what can be achieved and a personal exploration only.
It is not intended to be a complete working example or represent best practices.

There are many ways to build these projects!

Have fun!

:)