Gloobs

Gloobs is a simple object-oriented C++ graphics library. It is intended to be useful for teaching 2D computer graphics.

Gloobs will not produce any stunning graphics than can not better be generated with some other library. It was developed for use in a introductory computer graphics course to fulfill needs not met by existing libraries, in particular:

• Simplicity: Gloobs is designed to be as easy as possible to pick up. In particular, there is very little ‘overhead’ or ‘administration’ involved — a simple program contains very few lines, and a novice should be able to see how each one directly relates to the graphics produced.
• Object-Orientation: Gloobs is a C++ library, which makes it more suited to those who have learnt to program in C++ and have no C experience. Additionally, it makes use of the inherent object-orientation of graphics, where objects are composed of primitives.

Gloobs can produce output in an X11 window, or to a bitmap (png) or vector (PostScript) file. It can be used through CGI to generate dynamic graphics on webpages.

Gloobs is a wrapper round the g2 graphic library. All the actual rendering is delegated to g2, a C library written by Ljubo Milanovic and Horst Wagner. Gloobs was written by me.

Gloobs has been used in an undergraduate course presented by Tony Jenkins at The University of Leeds’s School of Computing. We have written a conference submission on the pedagogical value of Gloobs. This was originally to have been presented at a conference in Finland, but circumstances forced us to withdraw, and it will now be presented at a different conference in Scotland instead.

Gloobs, together with a suite of example programs and a worksheet have all been released under the Free Software Foundation’s General Public License. They are available from Tony’s Gloobs page. If you are interested in Gloobs or would like any more information, please contact us <gloobs-www@stripey.com>.