
Dr J's Guide to Drawing 3D ASCII Pictures (1994) - Tomte
http://www.sunnyspot.org/asciiart/docs/stereogr.html
======
HCIdivision17
I was a little skeptical - after all was it really tricking me into thinking
it's 3D? Or is this just an odd visual artifact? Then I read:

    
    
      Notice how the shaft now seems tilted to the left? 
      (Did you just catch yourself shifting your head to 
      the right? Convincing isn't it?!!)
    

And I realized I had just moved my head to the right to center the shaft
without realizing it. I laughed out loud when he caught me on it.

------
wgrover
Now I want a 3D text editor. Syntax highlighting by depth? or Python indents
in the third dimension!

~~~
wgrover
Proof of concept for Z-dimension Python indenting (cross your eyes):

    
    
      for line in file:          for line in file:
      print line                  print line
      print "all done!"          print "all done!"

~~~
nvader
Actually, I prefer the inner part of the loops negative z-indexed (but you can
image how it could flip as you move the caret around):

    
    
      for line in file:          for line in file:
      print line                print line
      print "all done!"          print "all done!"
    

However, staring at an IDE cross-eyed while trying to program sounds like a
punishment one might cook up for devs who bundle Browser Toolbar Adware with
screensaver packages that my mum likes to install, and not something I'd
choose for myself.

In university, I did some research into Multi-Level Displays (essentially a
transparent LCD a few millimetres in front of a standard LCD screen), but what
held the tech back for consumer applications was that we hadn't yet found a
killer app. (In contrast, the gambling industry loved them, and I see them
often in Casinos in Vegas).

But it seems like it would be a perfect application for fake 3d IDEs.

~~~
Senji
Maybe if you couple that with an Oculus/hololens it could be a viable display.

I guess you can mix that with color syntax highlighting. Or maybe have the IDE
run timing analysis on your code and adjust z-indexing to reflect where most
of the time is spent.

~~~
nvader
One of the best things about the MLD was that it is a 'real' 3D (well, 2.5-D)
display. The real separation of screens means that there's no need for special
eye-wear or projection, and there is no nauseating delay in dealing with head-
motion, eye-saccades or any of the other problems that I've heard plague long-
term use of the Oculus.

------
SeanDav
This uses the same technique as used for viewing Stereograms. Consider me
rather impressed.

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jasonkostempski
This is so cool! Could this be made into a little 3D roguelike?

------
brudgers
Date: 1994.

~~~
Tomte
But still not dated.

I don't understand some posters' obsession with "it's not from this week".

~~~
dang
The convention is to append the year to a title if the article is not from the
current year. But that's definitely not to disparage older content. Quite the
opposite! Older articles are often more interesting (because time culls the
less interesting stuff), and historical material is a lot of the best that
appears on HN. We're always hoping people will post more.

