From be0082315011792552f9194d821b5a5329f29da6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Alexander Wang Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2025 13:22:37 -0600 Subject: [PATCH 1/3] add line about limitation of shapes --- blog/ascii.md | 31 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 31 insertions(+) diff --git a/blog/ascii.md b/blog/ascii.md index b487051..9f76132 100644 --- a/blog/ascii.md +++ b/blog/ascii.md @@ -59,6 +59,37 @@ some post-processing to further compact it. - Sometimes the downscaling results in a box with uneven spacing, e.g. a rectangle with width 5 and the label is 2 chars. Due to discrete coordinate space in ASCII renders, some outputs may look less even than their SVG counterparts. +- Not all shapes are supported + - Here's what all the shapes render as in ASCII. Some of these, like cloud and circle, + have curves that don't translate well to ASCII. We render these as a rectangle and add + a little icon for what it's supposed to represent in the top-left. These are subject to +change. + +```txt + ┌────────┐ *** + ╱‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾╱ ╱‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾╱╲ │callout │ **** **** ╱‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾╲ + ┌──────────┐ ╱ ╱ │ │ │ └────────┘ *** diamond *** ╱ ╲ + │rectangle │ ╱ parallelogram ╱ │ queue │ │ │ ╱ **** **** ╲ hexagon ╱ + │ │ ╱_______________╱ ╲________ ╲╱ │╱ ***** ╲_________╱ + └──────────┘ + │ │ │ │ │ │ + ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ │ ▼ + ┌─────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌────┐ ╱‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾╱ ▼ ┌☁─────────┐ + │ │ │ document │ │ └────┐ ╱ ╱ ┌⬭────────┐ │ │ + │ square │ │ .-`-.│ │ package │ │ stored_data │ oval │ │ cloud │ + │ │ `-.-` └─────────┘ ╲ ╲ │ │ │ │ + │ │ ╲___________╲ └─────────┘ │ │ + └─────────┘ │ │ │ │ └──────────┘ + │ │ │ │ │ + ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ │ + ┌─────┐ .-‾‾‾‾-. ╲‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ ╲ ╱‾‾╲ ▼ + │ ╲┐ │╲-____-╱│ ╲ ╲ ╲__╱ ┌⬭────────┐ + │ page │ │ │ ╲ ╲ ╱‾‾‾‾╲ │ │ + │ │ │ │ ╱ step ╱ ‾‾‾‾‾‾ │ circle │ + └──────┘ │cylinder│ ╱ ╱ person │ │ + │ │ ╱_______ ╱ │ │ + ╲-____-╱ └─────────┘ +``` ## Try it yourself From bb8449bf55640da0c56dc08a7eb8ca9622dd192e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Alexander Wang Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2025 13:34:02 -0600 Subject: [PATCH 2/3] add another --- blog/ascii.md | 5 +++++ 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+) diff --git a/blog/ascii.md b/blog/ascii.md index 9f76132..f1bc7cd 100644 --- a/blog/ascii.md +++ b/blog/ascii.md @@ -59,6 +59,11 @@ some post-processing to further compact it. - Sometimes the downscaling results in a box with uneven spacing, e.g. a rectangle with width 5 and the label is 2 chars. Due to discrete coordinate space in ASCII renders, some outputs may look less even than their SVG counterparts. +- Certain things just can't render + - Special text, e.g. Markdown, Latex, Code + - Images and icons + - Right now these aren't special-handled -- whether removing them from the diagram or +using some placeholder is the right choice is tbd. - Not all shapes are supported - Here's what all the shapes render as in ASCII. Some of these, like cloud and circle, have curves that don't translate well to ASCII. We render these as a rectangle and add From 068f4601a4fcc1f31872bc95ac7a9d6e84295248 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Alexander Wang Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2025 16:31:29 -0600 Subject: [PATCH 3/3] edit --- blog/ascii.md | 3 ++- 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/blog/ascii.md b/blog/ascii.md index f1bc7cd..ef63233 100644 --- a/blog/ascii.md +++ b/blog/ascii.md @@ -62,13 +62,14 @@ outputs may look less even than their SVG counterparts. - Certain things just can't render - Special text, e.g. Markdown, Latex, Code - Images and icons + - UML classes and SQL tables - Right now these aren't special-handled -- whether removing them from the diagram or using some placeholder is the right choice is tbd. - Not all shapes are supported - Here's what all the shapes render as in ASCII. Some of these, like cloud and circle, have curves that don't translate well to ASCII. We render these as a rectangle and add a little icon for what it's supposed to represent in the top-left. These are subject to -change. +change. For now we recommend rendering without custom shapes. ```txt ┌────────┐ ***