What is openFrameworks?
openFrameworks is a free, open source C++ framework that is intended to develop real-time projects, which use most modern computing devices' capabilities, such as video, audio, networking, and computer vision.
openFrameworks is developed by Zach Lieberman, Theodore Watson, and Arturo Castro, together with a big openFrameworks community. The current openFrameworks version is 0.8.4.
Its main features are:
- openFrameworks is a framework for the easy development of real-time applications. All you need to do is implement a number of events, such as starting project and drawing, and openFrameworks will maintain all the stuff behind this, such as creating a graphical window and listening for mouse and keyboard events.
- Its conception and philosophy is oriented for use in creative and experimental projects. openFrameworks contain many ready-to-use functions and classes to work with 2D and 3D graphics, video, audio, and so on.
- It's a C++ framework, that is, you will code it using the C++ programming language. Your code will be compiled in native machine code and executed very efficiently. Many algorithms that work slowly when implemented in languages such as Python, Java, or Processing, could work significantly faster when implemented in openFrameworks.
- openFrameworks is highly extensible. Its extensions are called addons. They are open source and are built by members of the openFrameworks community. Several hundreds of existing addons give you an opportunity to extend your project with the capabilities of various software libraries, popular sensors, and gadgets.
- openFrameworks is cross-platform—the code you will write can be executed on many popular platforms, including OS X, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, and Linux ARM devices such as Raspberry Pi.
- Finally, it has a very friendly and active community. If you get stuck during developing with openFrameworks, you can get help from the openFrameworks forum.
Begin your acquaintance with openFrameworks by visiting and exploring its site openframeworks.cc. It contains a lot of useful information about openFrameworks, including download links, tutorials, documentation, forums, and news.
