Svgbob – convert ASCII diagrams to SVG, now with styling support (opens in new tab)

(ivanceras.github.io)

161 pointsivanceras6y ago33 comments

33 comments

32 comments · 12 top-level

vihren6y ago· 10 in thread

That seems pretty great, but I always have the problem of creating the ASCII art in the first place. Is there a tool to help with that?

jsrjenkins6y ago

The best I've found is emacs picture-mode.

https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Ba...

Here is a good summary:

http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/emacs_ascii_diagram.html

arminiusreturns6y ago

I love how after all these years I can still find out random new things about emacs I didn't know. It's a treasure trove of capabilities.

humblebee6y ago

For general chart drawing (box, lines, arrows, text) I've used asciiflow[0] a few times.

[0] http://asciiflow.com/

KingOfCoders6y ago

I can second that. It also supports import which I then use to update documentation.

patrec6y ago

If you're on a mac, try monodraw. It's discontinued, but it's cheap and works great (it's basically a full featured diagramming app – with text output).

inferiorhuman6y ago

I really liked monodraw but am reluctant to pay for a license now that it's more or less been abandoned. I still like it, but only bought a copy for work at megacorp and foolishly didn't put it in my name.

patrec6y ago

I'm not sure I understand this attitude. It's a pitty it failed commercially. But it's a great app that only costs a tenner and works well (probably way better than any available alternative). And it can "save" as text, so it's not like you're going to lose all your work.

Surely, a good investment for anyone above minimum wage who does ascii art periodically on a mac?

dewey6y ago

What makes you think it's abandoned? The author is active on Twitter, the last update for dark mode was in May 2019 and I don't see any show stopper bugs or crashes on Catalina. Small utilities like this don't need an update every month. I bought it a while ago because

1) It's very cheap and a great show case for a small niche Mac app that's both beautiful and works well

2) The two times per year I use it, it's already worth it and fun to play around with.

https://blog.helftone.com

1 more reply

mbar846y ago

Shameless plug: https://mbarkhau.keybase.pub/asciigrid/

vanderZwan6y ago

The website itself is an interactive editor, for what that's worth

2sk216y ago· 3 in thread

What a great idea! I have been using a text to UML sequence diagram tool and this seems to be very much along the same lines.

joefarish6y ago

What is the name of the tool?

2sk216y ago

Its a Mac app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sequence-diagram/id1195426709?...

shock6y ago

PlantUML, probably.

djmips6y ago· 2 in thread

Nice. I'd like the other direction. SVG -> ASCII

catalogia6y ago

You could rasterize the SVG with imagemagick then use aalib to create ascii art from that. However the quality of the result would doubtlessly depend on the nature of the SVG in question.

ivancerasOP6y ago

with your support and enough given time, this can be done.

_frkl6y ago· 2 in thread

This is pretty impressive. Are there builds for a cli?

inferiorhuman6y ago

Well the project's workspace defines svgbob and svgbob_cli crates so probably.

_frkl6y ago

yes, ive seen that. was just wondering whether/where there are prebuilt binaries i can download directly

mbar846y ago· 1 in thread

I recently wrote an editor for this:

https://mbarkhau.keybase.pub/asciigrid/

michael-ax6y ago

excellent! created something sensible and relevant just doing what seemed obvious.

flying_sheep6y ago· 1 in thread

Try this

_______

< Meow >

-------

        \   ^__^
         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
                ||----w |
                ||     ||

jagged-chisel6y ago

https://imgur.com/a/Og0vYAv

kstenerud6y ago· 1 in thread

This is cool, except the alignment is wrong in almost all diagrams. Labels are off center, things overlap, etc. If that were fixed, it would be very nice and usable.

virtualritz6y ago

Yes, this is indeed the only reason I couldn't use this otherwise great tool yet.

See my comment here: https://github.com/ivanceras/svgbob/issues/11#issuecomment-5...

dpfu6y ago

Also check out Markdeep, which provides this (and a whole lot more) via JS: http://casual-effects.com/markdeep/#features

dang6y ago

A thread from 9 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19857349

Also 2017: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14422777

andybak6y ago

Sometimes works with https://www.asciiart.eu

For example: https://www.asciiart.eu/cartoons/felix-the-cat

kats6y ago

Seriously, that is very cool! I wonder how PlantUML diagrams would look in Svgbob or Markdeep, if they were imported from text.

wolfgangK6y ago

Nice ! Now I just need to be able to have org mode source blocks for that .

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

33 comments

32 comments · 12 top-level

vihren6y ago· 10 in thread

That seems pretty great, but I always have the problem of creating the ASCII art in the first place. Is there a tool to help with that?

jsrjenkins6y ago

The best I've found is emacs picture-mode.

https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Ba...

Here is a good summary:

http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/emacs_ascii_diagram.html

arminiusreturns6y ago

I love how after all these years I can still find out random new things about emacs I didn't know. It's a treasure trove of capabilities.

humblebee6y ago

For general chart drawing (box, lines, arrows, text) I've used asciiflow[0] a few times.

[0] http://asciiflow.com/

KingOfCoders6y ago

I can second that. It also supports import which I then use to update documentation.

patrec6y ago

If you're on a mac, try monodraw. It's discontinued, but it's cheap and works great (it's basically a full featured diagramming app – with text output).

inferiorhuman6y ago

patrec6y ago

Surely, a good investment for anyone above minimum wage who does ascii art periodically on a mac?

dewey6y ago

1) It's very cheap and a great show case for a small niche Mac app that's both beautiful and works well

2) The two times per year I use it, it's already worth it and fun to play around with.

https://blog.helftone.com

1 more reply

mbar846y ago

Shameless plug: https://mbarkhau.keybase.pub/asciigrid/

vanderZwan6y ago

The website itself is an interactive editor, for what that's worth

2sk216y ago· 3 in thread

What a great idea! I have been using a text to UML sequence diagram tool and this seems to be very much along the same lines.

joefarish6y ago

What is the name of the tool?

2sk216y ago

Its a Mac app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sequence-diagram/id1195426709?...

shock6y ago

PlantUML, probably.

djmips6y ago· 2 in thread

Nice. I'd like the other direction. SVG -> ASCII

catalogia6y ago

You could rasterize the SVG with imagemagick then use aalib to create ascii art from that. However the quality of the result would doubtlessly depend on the nature of the SVG in question.

ivancerasOP6y ago

with your support and enough given time, this can be done.

_frkl6y ago· 2 in thread

This is pretty impressive. Are there builds for a cli?

inferiorhuman6y ago

Well the project's workspace defines svgbob and svgbob_cli crates so probably.

_frkl6y ago

yes, ive seen that. was just wondering whether/where there are prebuilt binaries i can download directly

mbar846y ago· 1 in thread

I recently wrote an editor for this:

https://mbarkhau.keybase.pub/asciigrid/

michael-ax6y ago

excellent! created something sensible and relevant just doing what seemed obvious.

flying_sheep6y ago· 1 in thread

Try this

_______

< Meow >

-------

        \   ^__^
         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
                ||----w |
                ||     ||

jagged-chisel6y ago

https://imgur.com/a/Og0vYAv

kstenerud6y ago· 1 in thread

This is cool, except the alignment is wrong in almost all diagrams. Labels are off center, things overlap, etc. If that were fixed, it would be very nice and usable.

virtualritz6y ago

Yes, this is indeed the only reason I couldn't use this otherwise great tool yet.

See my comment here: https://github.com/ivanceras/svgbob/issues/11#issuecomment-5...

dpfu6y ago

Also check out Markdeep, which provides this (and a whole lot more) via JS: http://casual-effects.com/markdeep/#features

dang6y ago

A thread from 9 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19857349

Also 2017: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14422777

andybak6y ago

Sometimes works with https://www.asciiart.eu

For example: https://www.asciiart.eu/cartoons/felix-the-cat

kats6y ago

Seriously, that is very cool! I wonder how PlantUML diagrams would look in Svgbob or Markdeep, if they were imported from text.

wolfgangK6y ago

Nice ! Now I just need to be able to have org mode source blocks for that .

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse