x187463
Awesome. This is the cleanest ascii-art tool I've seen, so far. To date, I've been using
and
https://meatfighter.com/ascii-silhouettify/
to create input text for TerminalTextEffects to create terminal animations like the following:
https://chrisbuilds.github.io/terminaltexteffects/img/change...
randomgermanguy
Bought this couple months ago, and am now always looking for more ways to include this for inline-documentation.
the fact i can export to clipboard and re-import it and reconstruct all the shapes etc. almost flawlessly is such a big win.
makeitdouble
Sounds super interesting, where do you put these diagrams ?
It's an issue I'm seeing even for comments touching too much on algorithmic stuff. To take a somewhat common example, if you were dealing with a credit card payment flow, where would the explanation of how a transaction goes through a few states asynchronously, which all trigger a webhook callback ?
Obviously the people working on the code need to be aware of that, so documentation is somewhere needed. I've seen people put whole blocks in class headers, other sprinkle it all inside the code, personally I ended up moving it outside of the code. Where would you put it?
Etheryte
On one hand, this could provide a lot of value as some things are just plain hard to explain using only words. On the other hand, aren't you worried about when someone else comes along and needs to update one of those comments? If they're not aware of this tool, it's either going to be incredibly tedious or simply not going to happen.
dsego
Add a one line comment stating that it was edited by monodraw.
makeitdouble
Looks like Monodraw a mac only BTW. That should be fine if macs are mandatory for all the devs on a project, but it would otherwise create a kinda weird situation.
bayindirh
Since they're text files, you can also say "Please copy to a ASCII diagram editor and update there (e.g. Monodraw, asciiflow, etc.)".
ricokatayama
That’s great. You gained a new customer. In the prompt's and Caves of Qud 1.0 era, I'd say ASCII art is a must, both in terms of UX and aesthetic in general.
milen
Developer of the app here, happy to answer any questions.
MomsAVoxell
Very nice product!
In the retro computing world, the use of "ASCII" to construct levels and worlds is quite prevalent.
I immediately considered whether Monodraw might be used as a kind of level editor in that context.
Would you consider adding an '8-bit character bitmap' mode, which allows for the bitmap to also be edited?
With such a feature, Monodraw would become immediately applicable to those of us building retro games for older platforms where this technique is used rather extensively to produce compelling art-work.
For context, here is an example game which uses plain ol' ASCII chars to deliver some fun Moon Buggy action:
https://www.oric.org/software/ascii_moon_buggy-2500.html
The same technique is used here, albeit with redefined character sets, to implement a Scuba Dive adventure:
milen
Thank you for the kind words!
> Would you consider adding an '8-bit character bitmap' mode, which allows for the bitmap to also be edited?
Can you clarify with an example? Monodraw supports "surfaces" which are just like bitmaps - you can use the Pencil tool and draw on those surfaces with any characters you want (there's a palette in the inspector), just like a bitmap editor.
MomsAVoxell
I guess we might be describing the same thing, and I am yet to have time to download and play with Monodraw (IT policies), but if there is indeed a way that surfaces could be replaced at a pixel level, so that for example the 'A' character becomes a Pacman, then we'd be aligned.
The only issue is, are these surfaces 8x8 or similar, and would it be possible to load in a 6x8 bitmap, for those unusual 8-bit computers of the era which used them .. I refer to my favourite system of the period, the Oric Atmos, which graphics techniques are described here: https://osdk.org/index.php?page=articles&ref=ART9
(EDIT: details on the charset feature, which would be 'nice to have' in Monodraw, here: https://osdk.org/index.php?page=articles&ref=ART9#title11)
IF I can edit the bitmap and render as 6x8 characters, Monodraw would be immediately useful for level design. In any case, when I have access to a non-work computer, I hope to spend some time digging in and informing myself, so apologies if none of this is relevant ..
tsewama
Adding more character sets besides ASCII and shape elements?
Having all the Unicode emoji galore as an option would be great. Not just for colorful code docs, but millions of social media content creators out there!
Brilliant app, nice work.
bayindirh
Hi Milen.
I love the app, please keep up the good work. It's perfect as is (at least for me).
Thanks for all the text ;)
hiltmon
Huge fan of the product, just wanted to say Thank You :)
shirol
> Monodraw does not use activation or any other form of DRM. We have complete trust in our customers.
Interesting. But, why?
milen
Any time spent on copy protection is time not spent on improving the product for the paying customers.
I find it unlikely that such copy protection would actually convert a non-paying user into a customer.
I also don't want to make the software network dependent in any way.
jonpalmisc
> I also don't want to make the software network dependent in any way.
As a user of Monodraw in an airgapped environment: thank you!
__MatrixMan__
The way that DRM and similar user-not-in-control technologies are making the world into a skinner box is a bigger problem than anything solved by those technologies.
Companies participating in that transformation don't get my money and I'm glad to know that this isn't one of them.
SirFatty
Windows version in the future?
elcapitan
Really neat, great work!
Would it be possible to export to text with escape sequences for the colors?
gardenhedge
Was this to scratch your own itch or who needs this?
milen
Yeah, it was. After I finished working on the iOS app I was previously involved with, I needed to either find a job or make another app.
I was browsing StackOverflow and saw some cool looking ASCII diagrams, thinking to myself "How can I make these easily on macOS?". So that's how the idea was born.
I then spent about 1.5yrs from the initial commit until v1 release. Unfortunately, the financials didn't work out, so I had to find a job eventually.
But I'm still maintaining the app and do have longer term plans when my job situation changes.
alxndr13
you were involved with clear? damn! i was one of the first users back then, even using it to this day! monodraw looks awesome, will definitely check it out!
jzs
Ouch! It looks very sweet i must say. Having worked on a similar idea for a while as a side project, it does hurt to see something better coming out.
I hope we can one day compete. :)
Edit: removed the URL
milen
Good luck with your project! The world is big enough for multiple products in the same space, no need to get discouraged.
DavidPiper
Haven't so quickly gone from "woah, that's cool" to "purchase now" in a long time. This is awesome and I will use it daily.
There's a visual simplicity and legibility to the kind of straight-forward but slightly-decorated diagrams shown in the sample images. And the fact that I can now copy-paste them anywhere as well (rather than the classic "screenshot of a Miro or Paint.js board") is so cool.
mrzool
Such an underrated app. I’ve used it for everything from network topologies and storage diagrams and even for my kitchen redesign. Works way better than every pricey specialized tool I’ve tried, and the ASCII outputs look way cooler with their old-school hacker ASCII aesthetic! Highly recommended.
bayindirh
I'm using this app since its first release.
It's a great simple app I use for inline comment diagrams and more importantly server login banners.
I love to login to a server with a customized banner and a tagline. It's just a small joy makes work more fun.
qwertox
Makes me want to get a Mac.
MrGilbert
While not exactly the same use case, I'd also like to point to REXPaint [1]. Same same, but different. And Windows only, though Wine might help under Linux.
endymion-light
Will love to buy this once I get my Mac.
Looks great, and also love the perpetual license for $9.99 rather than the host of subscription services, i'll probably end up buying it just to support good practices.
JKCalhoun
That's cool … but we're calling buying an app licensing it now?
That word is a red flag for me — wondering what dark pattern is awaiting, finding myself digging for the fine print…
greengreengrass
It's one of the few pieces of software I bought a licence for, rather than tolerate free tiers or simply not use it, because I approve of the licensing model.
__MatrixMan__
Same here
jonpalmisc
Monodraw is great. If I could change one thing, I would make it more expensive. $10 feels like a steal, given the use I've gotten out of it.
Some relevant browser based ascii-drawing tools.
https://app.monosketch.io/
https://web.archive.org/web/20210503172024/https://fatiherik...
https://textik.com/#
https://asciiflow.com/#/
https://fsymbols.com/draw/