After getting my Arduino and comming here I heard someone mention Processing then Wiring. I've been to the sites and registered for the bulletin boards (forums). My question is, obviously these are related somehow but what is the relation? The IDE is similar, JAVA is a common factor but what else and can you use one to write for the others (at least code snippets) Thanks for any clarification you can offer.
The arduino programming environment is based off of/very similar to Wiring
And processing is just used as a common example as it's simple to use and is fully compatible.
The Arduino and Wiring boards are programmed using the same language, C and C++. Wiring has defined a set of abstractions to make programming easier and the Arduino uses these same abstractions, sometimes referred to as the Wiring language or Arduino language, they are actually functions and libraries written in C and C++.
Processing uses a similar development environment (IDE) as the Arduino, but processing code is written in Java, and although this has some similarities to C++, it is a different language. If you know Java, Processing can be a convenient environment to control or display data on an Arduino connected to a PC or MAC via the serial port.
You can find more on Wiring here: http://www.wiring.org.co/
And Processing here: http://processing.org/