Smooth() does not work on a PGraphics in Processing 4.0b2. Please give us b3 or accurate documentation

Processing
1

As the title says, smooth() does not work on a PGraphics in Processing 4.0b2. The error message

Syntax error on “;”, delete this

was particularly unhelpful. The problem (with the pre-processor) was identified and fixed two months ago, just days after b2 was released, but unless you know how to find and navigate your way around github, you’d have no way of knowing that.

If the code isn’t ready yet for a beta 3, could we get a temporary note added to the reference for smooth() letting people know about the problem? If 4.0b2 is the recommended download, it would be good for the documentation to match its behavior.

2

Processing Foundation has always been doing the same thing since the transition from Processing 1.5.1 to 2.x.x.

That is, they keep irresponsibly pushing beta versions as the recommended download even though the quality of the release is more akin to alpha.

From my experience of more than a decade is that they only manage to have an actual stable release couple of months after their official “stable” releases.

I only install latest versions in my machine when folks here stop complaining of bugs, so I know it has reached maturity and thus it’s safe to use.

Stay away from major version release transitions and stick to previous known usable Processing version until it’s safe to come aboard the newest version.

1 Like
3

Yes, that’s why I’d held off until now. But I’m playing more with shaders at the moment and wanted to try the Shader Mode which didn’t work with 3.5.4. In 4.0b2, however, it just immediately crashes. It’s driving me schizophrenic having to switch between editors to code the glsl.

4

I should say, to be clearer, that you can control the smoothness on a PGraphics in that it inherits it from the default drawing surface. So,

smooth(8);
PGraphics pg = createGraphics( width, height, P2D );

works, but

PGraphics pg = createGraphics( width, height, P2D );
pg.smooth(8);

which is what the documentation for smooth() tells you to do, causes an error on the 2nd line.