
ASCII diagram creator - whiskers
http://www.asciiflow.com
======
Luyt
Perl has a module called 'Graph::Easy' which can create a diagram from a graph
automatically, and can also do ASCII-output. See <http://bloodgate.com/graph-
demo> for an interactive demo.

    
    
      [Sun] -- [Pear]
      [Apple] --> [Pear]
      [Pear] -- [fruit] --> [Pineapple]
      [Pear] --> [Cherry]
      [fruit] ==> [Done]
    

Renders to:

    
    
                    +--------+
                    | Cherry |
                    +--------+
                      ^
                      |
                      |
      +-------+     +--------+     +-------+     +-----------+
      | Apple | --> |  Pear  | --- | fruit | --> | Pineapple |
      +-------+     +--------+     +-------+     +-----------+
                      |              H
                      |              H
                      |              v
                    +--------+     +-------+
                    |  Sun   |     | Done  |
                    +--------+     +-------+

~~~
Luyt
It's a pity that the GraphViz family of automatic graph drawing tools don't
support ASCII:

    
    
      (user@air) /Users/user $ dot -Tascii
    
      Format: "ascii" not recognized. Use one of: bmp
      cgimage cmap cmapx cmapx_np dot eps exr fig
      gd gd2 gif gv imap imap_np ismap jp2 jpe jpeg
      jpg pct pdf pict plain plain-ext png ps ps2 psd
      sgi svg svgz tga tif tiff tk vml vmlz vrml wbmp
      x11 xdot xlib canon

------
thristian
Some ideas for more features:

    
    
        ,----------------.
        | Round-cornered |
        |      boxes     |
        `----------------'
    
        -+
         |
         >- Stretchy braces
         |
        -+
    

Also, GUI control mockups:

    
    
        ( Buttons )
    
        [ Dropdown lists |v]
    
        [X] Checkboxes
    
        (o) Radio buttons
    
        Sliders: ---|---------- 
    
        +-------------^
        | Scroll bars #
        |             #
        |             |
        |             v
        <----######-->
    
        Spin-boxes: [ 37.0 |:]
    

...you get the idea.

Being able to select drawn items and move them around after the fact would
also be great.

~~~
barista
Also it would be nice if they supported IE.

~~~
Groxx
When I saw this, it was down a vote or two. I thank you, kind sir / madam, for
making me bust a gut.

Not because I think you're wrong. Just that it's tantamount to bringing a
bucket of KFC to a vegan event.

~~~
kltbrdnkt
I'm not quite sure I understand your analogy unless you mean to say that
asciiflows core principles include not using IE.

~~~
gravitronic
I think they mean that HN's core principles include not using IE.

------
ZeWaren
What about ASCIIO? It's great because it allows you to move and connect the
blocks after you created them. It's great to document source code.

<http://search.cpan.org/dist/App-Asciio/lib/App/Asciio.pm>

------
ot
Needless to say, Emacs can do it (M-x artist-mode)

~~~
tmachinecharmer
Just what I was about to say <http://www.cinsk.org/emacs/emacs-artist.html>

~~~
battlehorse
Dammit, Emacs. <http://xkcd.com/378/>

~~~
lloeki
But but but... what about python? <http://xkcd.com/353/>

------
mootothemax
Honestly? This is the first online wireframing tool that I've been able to use
and _instantly_ display what I want.

Great work!

------
scrrr
Just needed this the other day and found this application:
<http://www.jave.de/> More features, but also feels more complex.

Screenshot: <http://www.jave.de/screenshots/60rc2_screenshot.png>

------
mixmastamyk
Reminds me of TheDraw from back in the day:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheDraw>

------
sente
I know this is a beta, but one suggestion: have an option to export the HTML
wrapped in a div/span/pre/<something> which has a monospace font style, this
would make it truly effortless to export the html and save it as-is.

Also I couldn't figure out how the arrow cursor worked or what one was
supposed to do with it.

my remarks aside, very cool app!

~~~
thristian
Hints about the active tool appear at the bottom right; apparently the arrow
tool is used for selecting a region so you can copy it to the clipboard.

------
Groxx
I'm really enjoying this, the utter simplicity of it has a certain appeal. I
would really like the ability to add columns / rows at the _cursor_ position,
though. Moving things around / feature heaven / hell would be fun, but _that_
I think would be a net improvement without breaking the simplicity at all.

------
ericbb
Cool! This is something I wanted to have and had started making for myself.
Mine is much less useful than asciiflow but the thing I like most about it is
that it allows writing and drawing more in the way I use my notebook. It's
easy to write little blocks of text that aren't aligned along the left margin.

Feature request: In text mode, assign <enter> to move the cursor down a line
and to the column that text entry began.

Here's my prototype: <http://norstrulde.org/tty/tty.html>

------
wrrice
I like this. I like this a lot. This is perfect for someone who just needs to
get a few thoughts together and can't be bothered with firing up Dia or
something similarly bloated.

~~~
whiskers
Yes, it's really nice and simple - great that you can just cut and paste the
result into an e-mail too!

------
b0rsuk
This is very cool. And you can quickly create mockups for roguelike levels.

    
    
                                         +-------+     +------------+                                   
                +---------------+        |       |     |     >      |     -4/124                        
                |               |        ||   <  | +---+%%%         |     15/15                         
                |   >   =       |        |       | |   |%     \     |                                   
                |               +--------+   %   | |   |     !!     |                                   
                |         %     |        |       | |   |            |      +----+                       
                |     %         |        |       | |   |            |      |%   |                       
                +---------------+        |  %%   +-+   +-----+------+      |    |                       
                                         |       |           |             |   >|                       
                                         |       |           |             |"   |                       
                                         |   %   |           |             +-+--+                       
                                         +----+--+           +---------+     |                          
                          +---------+         |                        |     |                          
                          |((       |         |    +------------+  +---+-----+--+                       
                          | ( O     |         |    |~~ P        |  |            |                       
                          |  @K  %  |         |    |~~~~     <  +--+      %   / |                       
                          |   %  Y  |         |    |~~~         |  +------------+                       
                          |   %   Y |         |    |            |                                       
                          |    c    Y---------+----+      ]     |   Slow Poisoned                       
                          |         |              |            +                                       
                          +---------+              |            |                                       
                                                   |   <        |                                       
                                                   +------------+          D:24                         
                    You teleport.                                                                       
                    The centaur shoots an arrow of flame. The arrow hits you.                           
                    You die...                                                                          
                    Xom says:"I guess I need a new plaything now."

------
linker3000
Must you young'uns always try and reinvent the wheel?

Thedraw FTW: <http://www.syaross.org/thedraw/>

Now get off my LAN

~~~
Groxx
> _Must you young'uns always try and reinvent the wheel?_

Yes.
[http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&q=spokeless+wheel](http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&q=spokeless+wheel)

Thedraw? or, excuse me, THEDRAW? I haven't heard of that one before, and the
page says next to nothing.

~~~
zorked
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheDraw>

TheDraw was used mostly in the BBS scene to create ASCII/ANSI art for the
BBS's log in screen and menus. There was an entire sub-community of artists
back then.

To be fair, the website is a diagram tool that outputs ASCII, while TheDraw
more more like a ASCII/ANSI illustration tool.

I didn't find any galleries of ANSI art out there but this page has a few
screenshots: <http://icodeforfood.com/shockwave-bbs/>

~~~
copper
textfiles.com would have quite a lot of ascii art from back then. Memories :)

------
richbradshaw
This would make a good nethack level editor!

~~~
ca98am79
I was thinking the same thing

------
bobbles
If this was a standalone application it would replace my notepad usage for
notetaking 100%...

~~~
illicium
<http://www.jave.de/>

~~~
bobbles
Wow thanks for that, ideally I'd like one without all that extra stuff and
just the diagrams from asciiflow.. but that's just being pedantic :)

------
zentechen
Too clever. Can VIM do it too?

~~~
kriardol
A quick google shows someone wrote a plugin called drawit.vim. Personally, I
think this is one case where I'd rather use the mouse.

------
bifrost
This is one of the best things I've seen all week. I hate traditional
flowcharting tools, they're wonky and a pain when you have to convert them to
anything else. ASCII is the portable data format basically.

------
gravitronic
Very nice website!

I tried to do the same with a 28x4 canvas with unicode for twitter, but client
and host unicode rendering differences turn it into an unintelligible mess
most of the time (www.draw140.com)

------
ck2
Oh wow, nice.

Just what I needed to make a directory tree example for a readme.txt

------
chromic
Awesome! Bookmarked for future usage.

