Simple graphics framework for high school students

Abstract

We propose a low-level C++ computer graphics framework suitable for facilitating the tea- ching of some aspects of computer programming in a high school environment.

Students can color the pixels of a UI window and render text using simple function calls. No prerequisite knowledge of object-oriented programming or computer graphics is necessary, the exercises and problems proposed in this text can be solved using the basic features of C++ that are covered by the high school curriculum in Romania for students enrolled in the mathematics and computer science program, grades 9–11.

Starting with simple example code we provide a set of problems with gradually increasing difficulty that are solvable using the two functions exposed by the framework in the hope of sparking interest for computer graphics and programming in general and motivating students to deepen their knowledge. Here they are provided with a way to generate graphical output, which complements the text based I/O in programs that they are usually required to write (either using the standard I/O streams or input and output files).

The implementation of this framework is an adapter layer over FLTK, a cross-platform GUI toolkit. Relying on it made it easier for us to provide a platform-independent implementation that can be used on Microsoft Windows operating systems and GNU/Linux distributions as well.

I would like to thank my advisor, Ildikó-Ilona Mezei, who helped me shape these ideas into a form suitable for an educational setting and reviewed the text, providing feedback that is highly appreciated.

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This is my MSc diploma thesis. Published here under CC BY 4.0.