MAT259 Visualizing Information(4 units)


George Legrady
Charlie Roberts

Lecture: Tuesday 10:00-12:00, Lab: Thursday 10:00-12:00 - e-studio/Arts2220

In lab today I gave an introduction on how to format and read XML, and an introduction to Processing. We combined the two together to create a short sketch in Processing that downloaded and parsed XML data from the Seattle Public Library project.

Links:

1. Wikipedia XML introduction
2. Processing
3. The ProXML Library
4. The Seattle Public Library data

The lab assignment is to take the code from what we did in class today (with added comments) and use it to generate visual elements in a Processing sketch. Experiment with some of the drawing tools in Processing (rect(), line(), ellipse(), or using text....) and create graphics on the screen using any part of the parsed xml data.

The goal of the lab assignment is as follows:
1. To make sure you have all downloaded Processing and the ProXML library
2. To start getting comfortable with Processing and asking questions
3. To have some fun experimenting with the drawing / animation features of Processing.

In the next lab we'll use the same file that I'm attaching as a starting point, and create an organized visualization with it. Again, for this lab assignment that is not necessary... just play around and see what you can come up with. Please email George and I your Processing file (with a .pde extension) by the start of lab next Thursday.

If you want to use different xml data than the file linked to in the attachment, you'll need to download the xml from the link above and then convert the file from UTF-16 to UTF-8 with a programmer friendly text editor. TextWrangler is a good choice for this if you're on a Mac.