Looks nice. https://asciiflow.com/ is a web-based alternative that's been my go-to for a decade.
Doesn't look like screen readers can read the text on these.
Monodraw
81–90 of 218 posts
Re: Monodraw
#82No Linux or windows?
Re: Monodraw
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you feel the need to embed giant ASCII diagrams into a source file, I think you should just use a picture. Like a .png or .svg or something and write the documentation in another file. Or even maybe try out rich text source code.
Please don't do things like this that make it harder for people to read your comments.
Writing documentation is typically an addition to writing comments. They serve different purposes. That said, adding a diagram to a comment will only make it easier to read. It is an addition. It cannot make things harder.
Re: Monodraw
#84[flagged]
Re: Monodraw
#85OMG this is one of my favorite tools paid for it all the way back when it went out. Have used it so many times just to write documentation for things like: https://github.com/ivank/potygen/blob/main/packages/potygen/... ASCII is just so versatile and allows you to put nice graphics in places where one does not expect, making things more easily understandable.
This is a fantastic illustration that sells the software for me. Thanks for sharing! I'll have to look into this.
Re: Monodraw
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
I use ASCIIFlow all the time. I still haven't figured out how to get browsers to render the monospace fonts correctly see example diagram on this page: http://uggly.bytester.net/#how-it-works
Looks fine on my machine - my guess is that your primary font does not contain all the glyphs used (e.g. the box-drawing chars), so its falling back to another font just for those glyphs, causing inconsistencies.
It seems to only mess it up on mobile. Desktop Chrome seems fine. Mobile Chrome is all I've tested on.
Re: Monodraw
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you feel the need to embed giant ASCII diagrams into a source file, I think you should just use a picture. Like a .png or .svg or something and write the documentation in another file. Or even maybe try out rich text source code.
Thanks! I’m sure they never thought of that! Or maybe they did, and there are advantages and tradeoffs to any approach. I’m sure your unique insight must be right, though.
You don't need to get so annoyed on someone else's behalf. I am just putting my opinion out there – specifically that I would prefer just an image file that is referenced from a comment. I'm sure this person knows what an image is; I was not trying to imply that they didn't.
Re: Monodraw
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
Looks fine on my machine - my guess is that your primary font does not contain all the glyphs used (e.g. the box-drawing chars), so its falling back to another font just for those glyphs, causing inconsistencies.
It seems to only mess it up on mobile. Desktop Chrome seems fine. Mobile Chrome is all I've tested on.
Ah, in that case you might want:
text-size-adjust: none;
-webkit-text-size-adjust: none;
Re: Monodraw
#89Hm. I'm interested in hearing more about the specific scenarios where this sort of tool is useful.
I skimmed through the HN comments and see that it can be used for adding diagrams to code comments. But what else? Slack, Jira, READMEs, SMS, Signal etc all allow you to include pngs.
Re: Monodraw
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
1. You can just “Save as” to PNG, it takes no time or effort. 2. I use to use Monodraw exclusively for making diagrams in source code, but over time I’ve become so comfortable with the tool, keyboard shortcuts, etc. that now I just use it for all diagrams. It’s a very nice tool.
If you feel the need to embed giant ASCII diagrams into a source file, I think you should just use a picture. Like a .png or .svg or something and write the documentation in another file. Or even maybe try out rich text source code.
The diagrams I am pasting in are usually like 80 x 40 chars and keep you from having to tab out into documentation. They don’t change often so they don’t create messy diffs. I don’t think that’s unreasonable. Nobody on my team seems to mind. I don’t think this is a problem and I’m having trouble understanding why you think it is.
If you’re wondering why I need diagrams in source code, then the answer is I usually don’t need them but it helps. The only project where they were game changing was where we were using Neo4j as a backend and being able to clearly diagram the data model was really helpful.