We introduce a framework for the construction, maintenance, and manipulation of arrangements of curves embedded on certain two-dimensional orientable parametric surfaces in three-dimensional space. The framework applies to planes, cylinders, spheres, tori, and surfaces homeomorphic to them. We reduce the effort needed to generalize existing algorithms, such as the sweep line and zone traversal algorithms, originally designed for arrangements of bounded curves in the plane, by extensive reuse of code. We have realized our approach as the Cgal package Arrangement on surface 2. We define a compact interface for our framework; only the operations in the interface need to be implemented for a specific application. The companion paper [6] describes concretizations for several types of surfaces and curves embedded on them, and applications. This is the first implementation of a generic algorithm that can handle arrangements on a large class of parametric surfaces. Mathematics Subject Clas...