diyaayay · Jun 29, 2026 · Aug 1, 2026 · Aug 2, 2026 · Aug 2, 2026 · Aug 3, 2026
diff --git a/app/src/processing/app/Preferences.java b/app/src/processing/app/Preferences.java
@@ -23,62 +23,34 @@
 
 import processing.app.ui.Toolkit;
 import processing.core.PApplet;
-import processing.core.PConstants;
 
-import java.awt.*;
-import java.io.*;
-import java.util.HashMap;
-import java.util.Map;
+import java.awt.Color;
+import java.awt.Font;
+import java.awt.SystemColor;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
 
 
 /**
- * Storage class for user preferences and environment settings.
- * <P>
- * This class does not use the Properties class because .properties files use
- * ISO 8859-1 encoding, which is highly likely to be a problem when trying to
- * save sketch folders and locations. Like the rest of Processing, we use UTF8.
- * <p>
- * We don't use the Java Preferences API because it would entail writing to
- * the registry (on Windows), or an obscure file location (on Mac OS X) and
- * make it far more difficult (impossible) to remove the preferences.txt to
- * reset them (when they become corrupt), or to find the the file to make
- * edits for numerous obscure preferences that are not part of the preferences
- * window. If we added a generic editor (e.g. about:config in Mozilla) for
- * such things, we could start using the Java Preferences API. But wow, that
- * sounds like a lot of work. Not unlike writing this paragraph.
+ * The app-facing side of the preferences. The actual storage (loading and
+ * saving preferences.txt, the bundled defaults, platform-specific keys)
+ * lives in the standalone {@link processing.utils.Preferences}; this class
+ * delegates to it and keeps the pieces that only make sense inside the
+ * full application: fonts and colors, error dialogs, and environment
+ * side effects like proxies and the native file chooser.
  */
 public class Preferences {
-  // had to rename the defaults file because people were editing it
-  static final String DEFAULTS_FILE = "defaults.txt"; //$NON-NLS-1$
-  static final String PREFS_FILE = "preferences.txt"; //$NON-NLS-1$
 
-  static Map<String, String> defaults;
-  static Map<String, String> table = new HashMap<>();
-  static File preferencesFile;
-  private static boolean initialized = false;
-
-
-//  /** @return true if the sketchbook file did not exist */
-//  static public boolean init() {
   static public void init() {
-    initialized = true;
     // start by loading the defaults, in case something
     // important was deleted from the user prefs
     try {
-        var defaultsStream = Preferences
-                .class
-                .getClassLoader()
-                .getResourceAsStream(DEFAULTS_FILE);
-        load(defaultsStream);
-    } catch (Exception e) {
+      processing.utils.Preferences.loadDefaults();
+    } catch (IOException e) {
       Messages.showError(null, "Could not read default settings.\n" +
                          "You'll need to reinstall Processing.", e);
     }
 
-    // Clone the defaults, then override any them with the user's preferences.
-    // This ensures that any new/added preference will be present.
-    defaults = new HashMap<>(table);
-
     // other things that have to be set explicitly for the defaults
     setColor("run.window.bgcolor", SystemColor.control); //$NON-NLS-1$
 
@@ -87,32 +59,15 @@ static public void init() {
       setBoolean("editor.input_method_support", true);
     }
 
-
-    // next load user preferences file
-    preferencesFile = Base.getSettingsFile(PREFS_FILE);
-      var preferencesFileOverride = System.getProperty("processing.app.preferences.file");
-      if (preferencesFileOverride != null && !preferencesFileOverride.isEmpty()) {
-          preferencesFile = new File(preferencesFileOverride);
-      }
-    boolean firstRun = !preferencesFile.exists();
-    if (!firstRun) {
-      try {
-        load(new FileInputStream(preferencesFile));
-
-      } catch (Exception ex) {
-        Messages.showError("Error reading preferences",
-                           "Error reading the preferences file. " +
-                           "Please delete (or move)\n" +
-                           preferencesFile.getAbsolutePath() +
-                           " and restart Processing.", ex);
-      }
-    }
-
-    if (checkSketchbookPref() || firstRun) {
-//    if (firstRun) {
-      // create a new preferences file if none exists
-      // saves the defaults out to the file
-      save();
+    // next load user preferences file over the defaults
+    try {
+      processing.utils.Preferences.loadUserPrefs(Base.getSettingsFolder());
+    } catch (IOException ex) {
+      Messages.showError("Error reading preferences",
+                         "Error reading the preferences file. " +
+                         "Please delete (or move)\n" +
+                         processing.utils.Preferences.getPreferencesPath() +
+                         " and restart Processing.", ex);
     }
 
     PApplet.useNativeSelect =
@@ -140,15 +95,15 @@ static public void init() {
    * For testing, pretend to load preferences without a real file.
    */
   static public void skipInit() {
-    initialized = true;
+    processing.utils.Preferences.skipInit();
   }
 
   /**
    * Check whether Preferences.init() has been called. If not, we are probably not running the full application.
    * @return true if Preferences has been initialized
    */
   static public boolean isInitialized() {
-    return initialized;
+    return processing.utils.Preferences.isInitialized();
   }
 
 
@@ -165,120 +120,24 @@ static void handleProxy(String protocol, String hostProp, String portProp) {
 
 
   static public String getPreferencesPath() {
-    return preferencesFile.getAbsolutePath();
+    return processing.utils.Preferences.getPreferencesPath();
   }
 
 
   // . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 
 
-  /**
-   * Load a set of key/value pairs from a UTF-8 encoded file into 'table'.
-   * For 3.0a6, this removes any platform-specific extensions from keys, so
-   * that we don't have platform-specific entries in a user's preferences.txt
-   * file, which would require all prefs to be changed twice, or risk being
-   * overwritten by the unchanged platform-specific version on reload.
-   */
   static public void load(InputStream input) throws IOException {
-    HashMap<String, String> platformSpecific = new HashMap<>();
-
-    String[] lines = PApplet.loadStrings(input);  // Reads as UTF-8
-    for (String line : lines) {
-        if ((line.isEmpty()) ||
-          (line.charAt(0) == '#')) continue;
-
-        line = line.replace("\\", "/");  // normalize slashes in paths
-
-      // this won't properly handle = signs being in the text
-      int equals = line.indexOf('=');
-      if (equals != -1) {
-        String key = line.substring(0, equals).trim();
-        String value = line.substring(equals + 1).trim();
-        if (!isPlatformSpecific(key, value, platformSpecific)) {
-          table.put(key, value);
-        }
-      }
-    }
-    // Now override the keys with any platform-specific defaults we've found.
-    for (String key : platformSpecific.keySet()) {
-      table.put(key, platformSpecific.get(key));
-    }
+    processing.utils.Preferences.load(input);
   }
 
 
-  /**
-   * @param key original key (may include platform extension)
-   * @param value the value that goes with the key
-   * @param specific where to put the key/value pairs for *this* platform
-   * @return true if a platform-specific key
-   */
-  static protected boolean isPlatformSpecific(String key, String value,
-                                              Map<String, String> specific) {
-    for (String platform : PConstants.platformNames) {
-      String ext = "." + platform;
-      if (key.endsWith(ext)) {
-        String thisPlatform = PConstants.platformNames[PApplet.platform];
-        if (platform.equals(thisPlatform)) {
-          key = key.substring(0, key.lastIndexOf(ext));
-          // store this for later overrides
-          specific.put(key, value);
-        //} else {
-          // ignore platform-specific defaults for other platforms,
-          // but return 'true' because it needn't be added to the big list
-        }
-        return true;
-      }
-    }
-    return false;
-  }
-
-
-  // . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
-
-
   static public void save() {
-    // On startup, this is null, but ignore it. It's trying to update the
-    // prefs for the open sketch before Preferences.init() has been called.
-    if (preferencesFile != null) {
-      try {
-        File dir = preferencesFile.getParentFile();
-        File preferencesTemp = File.createTempFile("preferences", ".txt", dir);
-        if (!preferencesTemp.setWritable(true, false)) {
-          throw new IOException("Could not set " + preferencesTemp + " writable");
-        }
-
-        // Fix for 0163 to properly use Unicode when writing preferences.txt
-        PrintWriter writer = PApplet.createWriter(preferencesTemp);
-
-        String[] keyList = table.keySet().toArray(new String[0]);
-        // Sorting is really helpful for debugging, diffing, and finding keys
-        keyList = PApplet.sort(keyList);
-        for (String key : keyList) {
-          writer.println(key + "=" + table.get(key)); //$NON-NLS-1$
-        }
-        writer.flush();
-        writer.close();
-
-        // Rename preferences.txt to preferences.old
-        File oldPreferences = new File(dir, "preferences.old");
-        if (oldPreferences.exists()) {
-          if (!oldPreferences.delete()) {
-            throw new IOException("Could not delete preferences.old");
-          }
-        }
-        if (preferencesFile.exists() &&
-            !preferencesFile.renameTo(oldPreferences)) {
-          throw new IOException("Could not replace preferences.old");
-        }
-        // Make the temporary file into the real preferences
-        if (!preferencesTemp.renameTo(preferencesFile)) {
-          throw new IOException("Could not move preferences file into place");
-        }
-
-      } catch (IOException e) {
-        Messages.showWarning("Preferences",
-                             "Could not save the Preferences file.", e);
-      }
+    try {
+      processing.utils.Preferences.save();
+    } catch (IOException e) {
+      Messages.showWarning("Preferences",
+                           "Could not save the Preferences file.", e);
     }
   }
 
@@ -289,44 +148,31 @@ static public void save() {
   // all the information from preferences.txt
 
   static public String get(String attribute /*, String defaultValue */) {
-    if (!initialized) {
+    if (!isInitialized()) {
         init();
     }
-    return table.get(attribute);
+    return processing.utils.Preferences.get(attribute);
   }
 
 
   static public String getDefault(String attribute) {
-    return defaults.get(attribute);
+    return processing.utils.Preferences.getDefault(attribute);
   }
 
 
   static public void set(String attribute, String value) {
-    table.put(attribute, value);
+    processing.utils.Preferences.set(attribute, value);
   }
 
 
   static public void unset(String attribute) {
-    table.remove(attribute);
+    processing.utils.Preferences.unset(attribute);
   }
 
 
   static public boolean getBoolean(String attribute) {
     String value = get(attribute); //, null);
     return Boolean.parseBoolean(value);
-
-    /*
-      supposedly not needed, because anything besides 'true'
-      (ignoring case) will just be false.. so if malformed -> false
-    if (value == null) return defaultValue;
-
-    try {
-      return (new Boolean(value)).booleanValue();
-    } catch (NumberFormatException e) {
-      System.err.println("expecting an integer: " + attribute + " = " + value);
-    }
-    return defaultValue;
-    */
   }
 
 
@@ -385,26 +231,6 @@ static public Font getFont(String familyAttr, String sizeAttr, int style) {
   // . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 
 
-  /**
-   * Check for a 4.0 sketchbook location, and if none exists,
-   * try to grab it from the 3.0 sketchbook location.
-   * @return true if a location was found and the pref didn't exist
-   */
-  static protected boolean checkSketchbookPref() {
-    // If a 4.0 sketchbook location has never been inited
-    if (getSketchbookPath() == null) {
-      String threePath = get("sketchbook.path.three"); //$NON-NLS-1$
-      // If they've run the 3.0 version, start with that location
-      if (threePath != null) {
-        setSketchbookPath(threePath);
-        return true;  // save the sketchbook right away
-      }
-      // Otherwise it'll be null, and reset properly by Base
-    }
-    return false;
-  }
-
-
   static public String getOldSketchbookPath() {
     return get("sketchbook.path.three"); //$NON-NLS-1$
   }

diff --git a/app/utils/src/main/java/processing/utils/Platform.java b/app/utils/src/main/java/processing/utils/Platform.java
@@ -23,4 +23,16 @@ static public boolean isWindows() {
     static public boolean isLinux() {
         return System.getProperty("os.name").contains("Linux"); //$NON-NLS-1$ //$NON-NLS-2$
     }
+
+
+    /**
+     * Platform name for the current OS, mirroring core's
+     * PConstants.platformNames: "windows", "macos", "linux", or "other".
+     */
+    static public String getName() {
+        if (isWindows()) return "windows"; //$NON-NLS-1$
+        if (isMacOS())   return "macos";   //$NON-NLS-1$
+        if (isLinux())   return "linux";   //$NON-NLS-1$
+        return "other";                    //$NON-NLS-1$
+    }
 }