Sarah Hatton:::

I am working on my MFA thesis and currently have a little artist block. Frustrating to say the least… I really want to get some sort of dynamic WordNet library working with Flash, but there are none available. There are plenty for Java and Processing. If you are interested, you can check out JWNL or JAWS for Java or Rita.WordNet for Processing. Rita is the easiest to use. I have tried the Java libraries and the way they work is confusing for me. Rita just has all of the methods pretty much ready to go. In the meantime, here is an awesome resource for other open source Flash libraries (and other Adobe software) called RIAForge.

Speaking of Processing, 1.0 came out back in November ‘08. I have been using it for about a year now, off and on for various things. I prefer using Flash just because of the GUI (and awesome things like FlashDevelop for the PC) and I find ActionScript 3.0 just slightly more intuitive, however, they are almost the same. The main difference is that Processing is FREE. I would like to someday be just as well versed in prototyping and designing in Processing as I am in Flash. If you have never used Processing, check it out HERE! I recommend the reference book with the polka dots, the one by Ira Greenberg. If I ever have the opportunity to teach a computational art, digital media or rapid prototyping class in the future, I would use Processing.