The area of graphics fits well into object-oriented design methodology first defining objects, then using the objects in images and where the students have a background in OO development it is sensible to make use of this. An environment is required for the students to carry out practical work. Existing graphics libraries tend to use C, and are in any case too complicated for teaching. There exists a simple library, g2, that is straightforward to use, where the complexity is hidden from the programmer. Each method corresponds exactly to a g2 function, so this offers only a slight advantage over g2.
Primitives have properties such as colour, size, and whether they are filled.
Objects created like this can then be drawn on a canvas, translated to any position and any size. The programmer thus considers components individually, according to object-oriented methodology. Once created, objects can be re-used in canvases. For example, a tree object can be used many times to create a forest. In practice, Gloobs enabled students to master most of the basic graphical concepts within a language and, more importantly, a methodology with which they were familiar.