CMake Setup

Steps 1-3 MSYS2 setup

Same as the drag-and-drop guide. If you already did that setup, just also install CMake while you're in the MSYS2 MinGW 64-bit terminal:

pacman -S --needed mingw-w64-x86_64-cmake

If you haven't done that setup yet, follow steps 1-3 there first, then come back here.

Step 4 Get the CMake package

Download processing-cpp-cmake.zip from the Downloads page. Extract it. Rename the folder to processing-cpp.

Step 5 Set up your project folder

Create a MySketch folder. Your structure should look like this:

MySketch/
├── CMakeLists.txt     ← you will create this
├── main.cpp           ← your sketch
└── processing-cpp/    ← the folder you extracted

Step 6 Write main.cpp

Same sketch code as in the drag-and-drop guide:

#include "Processing.h"

struct Sketch : public Processing::PApplet {
    void settings() override { size(640, 360); }
    void setup()    override { background(0); }
    void draw()     override {
        background(0);
        fill(255, 140, 0);
        circle(mouseX, mouseY, 40);
    }
};

int main() {
    Sketch sketch;
    sketch.run();
}

Uses circle(), fill(), background(), mouseX / mouseY. See the full reference for everything else.

Step 7 Write CMakeLists.txt

Open Notepad. Paste this exactly. Save it as CMakeLists.txt inside MySketch. Watch out: Notepad sometimes sneaks a .txt extension on the end. Make sure it's just CMakeLists.txt with no extra extension.

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16)
project(MySketch CXX)

add_subdirectory(processing-cpp)

add_executable(MySketch main.cpp)
target_link_libraries(MySketch PRIVATE processing_cpp)

Step 8 Open VS Code and the terminal

Open VS Code, go to File → Open Folder and select your MySketch folder. Open the integrated terminal with Ctrl+` and switch it to MSYS2 / MinGW64 using the dropdown arrow next to the +.

Step 9 Configure

cmake -B build -G "MinGW Makefiles"

Step 10 Build

cmake --build build

Step 11 Run

./build/MySketch.exe

brew install cmake

cmake -B build
cmake --build build
./build/MySketch

# Ubuntu / Debian
sudo apt install cmake

# Arch
sudo pacman -S cmake

# Ubuntu / Debian
sudo apt install g++ libglfw3-dev libglew-dev

# Arch
sudo pacman -S gcc glfw glew

cmake -B build
cmake --build build
./build/MySketch