Work in progress: ASCII art FAQ 3.0.-1
Andreas Freise
[...]
> The reason I've published this in its unfinished state is so people can
> stop me before I go off and do anything badly wrong.
Very good idea.
> 4. ... MIRRORS
[...]
> The person responsible for each copy listed below should reply to this
> message before 15 April 1999, stating their intention to keep their copy
> up-to-date (or not), and which address it is; if not, I'll remove the
> address of their copy from the list of mirrors. (Reply in alt.ascii-art,
> not by e-mail please, it's cheaper for me and probably no different in
> cost for you.) Anyone else who wants to put up a mirror should let me
> know what its address is going to be in the same way.
Hold it! Do you want to be responsible for the mirror sites
(well, at least for the URL list, mailing list, etc)
for ALL those informational documents? Or do you want to create
two different mirror site lists?? If none of that is the case
better talk to Martin first and best wait until there is
some agreement on how we'd like to do it.
[...]
Apart from this technical bit I think your doing fine.
:)
Andreas
.---...__ ..
____ '| ASCII `:;=-.
http://www.stud.uni-hannover.de/~freise ___ || ART )| [)
__________ `==-...___''.-.|
______________________________________________ ((o)(o)'`-(o)'__________
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""a:f
Martin Atkins
|
|
|The one exception is Martin's suggestion of CSS for prettying up the
|HTML version. Martin, I wouldn't touch CSS with a bargepole until at
|least 50 percent of Web surfers are using Netscape/Mozilla 5.0, which is
|the only browser which can handle CSS properly!
|
'-----------------------------
If you use CSS properly it allows you to make it look nice on 'decent'
browsers while making it usable on older ones, and making it almost plain
text (very minimal markup). Therefore I believe that that should be what is
used... might be just me, though.
.-----------------------------
|4. ... MIRRORS
|The mirror addresses a couple of paragraphs down from the start are
|currently marked in [brackets] with the current version numbers for
|their copies of the FAQ. This is partly a wake-up call to those of you
|who have out-of-date copies on their sites, and partly a way of setting
|up the definitive list of mirrors.
'-----------------------------
Eeek... I have about 5 copies of the FAQ, two of which (one you have listed)
are very out of date. vibes.vossnet.co.uk/i/ighaig/ascfaq.htm has been
recently superseded by my more consistant (to the rest of my FAQ site)
http://voices.vossnet.co.uk/a/atkins/aaafaq/
.-----------------------------
|The person responsible for each copy listed below should reply to this
|message before 15 April 1999, stating their intention to keep their copy
|up-to-date (or not), and which address it is; if not, I'll remove the
|address of their copy from the list of mirrors. (Reply in alt.ascii-art,
|not by e-mail please, it's cheaper for me and probably no different in
|cost for you.) Anyone else who wants to put up a mirror should let me
|know what its address is going to be in the same way.
'-----------------------------
Hmm... Are you talking about mirrors of this document or all of the current
informational documents?
I thought that we were still discussing how mirroring of informatinal
documents was to be handled, including which documents and filenames we were
all going to use.
Incidentally, mine are currently at...
http://martweb.hypermart.net/aaafaq/aaafaq.txt (Seattle, America)
http://website.lineone.net/~martin.atkins/aaafaq/aaafaq.txt (Somewhere, UK)
http://voices.vossnet.co.uk/a/atkins/aaafaq/aaafaq.txt (Langley, UK)
.-----------------------------
|Mirrors registered in this way will be shown by a * next to the address
|in later postings of this message. This is the first posting of this
|message. If you replied to this message saying that you would put up a
|mirror copy, and the next posting does not show a * next to your
|address, then I have probably not seen your message -- try again by
|replying to the next message.
|
'-------------------
Will have a read over the new FAQ when I'm offline.
-Martin
______ ----.
.' '-' (D'. .---------------------------------.
-"""""--.-' '-. | _______ |===========|
.-' -' .'/ / ||\/| /\ |_)| | |\ | |mart.atkins|
.-' '..-'.''. = || |/--\| \| _|_| \| | @ |
/ '-' '.___.' | ___ ___ __ |bigfoot.com|
/ \ | /\ ||/ | |\ |(_ |===========|
| .. . | | /--\||\_|_| \|__) |Reply ROT13|
_ | / '. | | |---------------------------------|
/ '| ' \ | / |#####.""""""""""""""""""""".#####|
( \ | '. ' |#####| HAPPY EASTER TO ALL |#####|
\_/ '.. | .'. ' |#####'_____________________'#####|
' '' '''"\----' \ \__ '---------------------------------'
'__________/ mga '____\\
Matthew Thomas
This version of the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for the ASCII art
Usenet groups is a development version only, and should not be archived
or reposted. If you're new to this group, please look for a message
posted by Martin Atkins with the subject `[FAQ] New to ascii art? Read
me first!' and read that instead, or you may get horribly confused.
Notes to regulars
-----------------
1. IT'S ALL ...
At the moment I've just rearranged the entire contents of the existing
FAQ under new question headings, so everything's a bit of a mess. I
have, however, rewritten Questions 1, 2, and 3. The questions, I hope,
are more geared to new users now -- in particular I've dropped the one
about signature files, as it was a bit off-topic, and put the
explanation of the ASCII character set in a separate question.
2. ... SMOKE ...
[Bits like this] are notes to myself, and many of them show where I'm
going to insert new stuff. They'll be deleted in the final version.
3. ... AND? ...
The reason I've published this in its unfinished state is so people can
stop me before I go off and do anything badly wrong. All suggestions are
welcome. As for what people have written already about FAQ posting,
hosting etc, I agree entirely with almost all of it.
The one exception is Martin's suggestion of CSS for prettying up the
HTML version. Martin, I wouldn't touch CSS with a bargepole until at
least 50 percent of Web surfers are using Netscape/Mozilla 5.0, which is
the only browser which can handle CSS properly!
4. ... MIRRORS
The mirror addresses a couple of paragraphs down from the start are
currently marked in [brackets] with the current version numbers for
their copies of the FAQ. This is partly a wake-up call to those of you
who have out-of-date copies on their sites, and partly a way of setting
up the definitive list of mirrors.
The person responsible for each copy listed below should reply to this
message before 15 April 1999, stating their intention to keep their copy
up-to-date (or not), and which address it is; if not, I'll remove the
address of their copy from the list of mirrors. (Reply in alt.ascii-art,
not by e-mail please, it's cheaper for me and probably no different in
cost for you.) Anyone else who wants to put up a mirror should let me
know what its address is going to be in the same way.
Mirrors registered in this way will be shown by a * next to the address
in later postings of this message. This is the first posting of this
message. If you replied to this message saying that you would put up a
mirror copy, and the next posting does not show a * next to your
address, then I have probably not seen your message -- try again by
replying to the next message.
bye for now
--
Matthew `oh, what I'd do for some time to draw PICTURES!' Thomas
Columnist, http://www.newsroom.co.nz/
Webmaster, http://www.ucsa.canterbury.ac.nz/clubs/kakariki/
Maintainer, http://cantua.canterbury.ac.nz/~mpt26/art/ascii/faq/
=======================================================================
[Subject:] (FAQ) Welcome to ASCII art
=======================================================================
__ __ __ _,
\\ \\ / ___ '|| ___ ___ __ _ _ ___ _/|_ ___
\\ /\\ / //_\) || // \)// \\ ||'||'|| //_\) || // \\
\/ \/ \\__,_||_\\__,\\_//_||_||_||_\\__, \|_\\_//
___ ___ ____ ____
/\ (( / // | || || ___ _,_ _/|_
/_\\ \\ (( || || __\\'||\) ||
_/ _\\_/__)) \\__,_||_ _||_ ((_||_||_ \|_
Author: Matthew Thomas (spiff @ 3dmail . com)
Version: 3.0.-1
Last changed: 1999-03-28
NOTE: alt.ascii-art and alt.ascii-art.animation are Usenet discussion
groups. If you are new to Usenet, please read the messages in
news:news.announce.newusers before posting.
This FAQ is regularly posted to news:alt.ascii-art and
news:alt.ascii-art.animation. On the Web, the latest version is
available at
* http://cantua.canterbury.ac.nz/~mpt26/art/ascii/faq/ [2.0.1]
Mirror copies are available at
o http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/faq.htm [2.0]
o http://artpacks.acid.org/faqs/faq-altasciiart.html [2.0]
o http://vibes.vossnet.co.uk/i/ighaig/ascfaq.htm [2.0]
o http://www.stud.uni-hannover.de/~freise/ascii/faq.html
o http://www.misslink.net/donovan/asciifaq.html [2.0.mga1]
o http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/8608/faq.html [1.0.3]
o
http://www.ludd.luth.se/users/vk/pics/ascii/junkyard/techstuff/FAQ/FAQ_Matthew_Thomas.html [1.0.3].
Contents
--------
1. What's going on here?
2. What is ASCII art?
3. What's ASCII, then?
4. What *isn't* ASCII art?
5. How do I view ASCII art properly?
6. How do I draw my own ASCII art?
7. So now I've drawn it, how should I post it?
8. I like that ASCII picture -- can I copy it for myself?
9. I want a picture of something -- how do I ask for one?
10. Can someone do me some cool lettering?
11. How do I convert a picture to ASCII art?
12. Where do I find more ASCII art pictures and information?
1. What's going on here?
--------------------------
You're probably reading this because it's been posted to
news:alt.ascii-art or news:alt.ascii-art.animation. If you're not,
jump in and take a look. In these Usenet groups people discuss
ASCII art, request ASCII art, post ASCII art, post improved versions
or variations of other people's ASCII art, and generally have fun.
2. What is ASCII art?
----------------------
I thought you'd never ask! ASCII art is any sort of picture or
diagram drawn with the printing characters in the ASCII character
set. (For more about ASCII, see Question 3.)
Probably the most common ASCII art picture is the smiley -- :-) --
but it gets a lot more sophisticated than that. Here's a small ASCII
picture of a snow-scene paperweight, drawn by Joan Stark:
____
.-" +' "-.
/.'.'A_'*`.\
|:.*'/\-\. ':|
|:.'.||"|.'*:|
\:~^~^~^~^:/
/`-....-'\
jgs / \
`-.,____,.-'
If this picture looks very strange and you can't really tell what it
is, don't panic -- see Question 5.
People use ASCII art for a number of reasons. Here are some of them.
* It is the most universal computer art form in the world --
every computer system capable of displaying multi-line text can
display ASCII art, without needing to have a graphics mode or
support a particular graphics file format.
* An ASCII picture is hundreds of times smaller in file size
than its GIF or BMP equivalent, while still giving a good idea
of what something looks like.
* It's easy to copy from one file to another (just cut and paste).
* It's fun.
3. What's ASCII, then?
-----------------------
ASCII (short for the American Standard Code for Information
Interchange) is a basic set of 128 numbered symbols which almost all
kinds of computer can display. Here are the ones that are used for
ASCII art:
032 [space] 048 0 064 @ 080 P 096 ` 112 p
033 ! 049 1 065 A 081 Q 097 a 113 q
034 " 050 2 066 B 082 R 098 b 114 r
035 # 051 3 067 C 083 S 099 c 115 s
036 $ 052 4 068 D 084 T 100 d 116 t
037 % 053 5 069 E 085 U 101 e 117 u
038 & 054 6 070 F 086 V 102 f 118 v
039 ' 055 7 071 G 087 W 103 g 119 w
040 ( 056 8 072 H 088 X 104 h 120 x
041 ) 057 9 073 I 089 Y 105 i 121 y
042 * 058 : 074 J 090 Z 106 j 122 z
043 + 059 ; 075 K 091 [ 107 k 123 {
044 , 060 < 076 L 092 \ 108 l 124 |
045 - 061 = 077 M 093 ] 109 m 125 }
046 . 062 > 078 N 094 ^ 110 n 126 ~
047 / 063 ? 079 O 095 _ 111 o
There are other characters in the set (with the numbers 000--031 and
127), but they can do bad stuff to Usenet readers so you shouldn't
use them in your pictures (except for character 13, which is used
to insert a new line).
4. What *isn't* ASCII art?
---------------------------
Sometimes people confuse ASCII art with other things, and posting
these other things to the ASCII art Usenet groups tends to annoy us.
The Rogue's Gallery is as follows.
* ANSI, `extended ASCII', or `high ASCII' art. Many computer
systems have an extended character set of 256 or more
characters, based on the ANSI or Unicode character sets and
having the first 128 characters identical to ASCII. These
characters should not be used in ASCII art because many types
of computer system do not display them properly, and even those
that do do not display them in a standard way (for example, the
Windows ANSI character set is different from the Macintosh ANSI
character set).
* HTML art. HTML, the language used in Web pages, can be used to
add special effects such as colours, font size, and (ugh)
blinking text to ascii art, and HTML can be read by some
newsreaders. However, the key word here is `some'. To many
newsreaders, HTML art will just appear as a jumble of <TAGS> and
will be totally unrecognizable.
If you want to create HTML art, do so by all means, but put it
on a Web page and post the page address (URL) to
news:alt.ascii-art. Advice on how to do this can be found at
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/9334/asciionpage.htm.
* ASCII art animated using JavaScript. This relies not only on the
newsreader being able to display HTML, but also being able to
run JavaScript. As with HTML art, put it on a Web page and post
the address to news:alt.ascii-art.animation.
5. How do I view ASCII art properly?
-------------------------------------
[Merge with Martin's `ASCII art not looking right? Read this!']
[Include instructions for common e-mail programs/Usenet readers]
If a picture you see posted to one of the ASCII art Usenet groups
looks a complete mess to you, don't panic. There are several
reasons why it may look weird.
* If *none* of the pictures in the group look like what the
sender describes them as, then you're probably using a
proportional font. To view (and draw) ASCII art, you must use a
fixed-width font -- one where all characters are the same width
(like on an ordinary typewriter). If you're not sure if your
font is fixed-width or not, check the following two lines and
see if they're the same length.
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii|
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm|
If they aren't, find the option in your newsreader which lets
you specify which font to use. If you just have a choice
between proportional and fixed width, choose fixed width. If
you have a choice of which font to use, try different ones
until you find a fixed-width one (using the `i's and `m's above
as a guide). Popular fixed width fonts include Courier, Monaco,
Fixedsys; anything with `fixed', `terminal', or `Courier' in
its name will probably be fixed-width.
Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) supply newsreaders to
their customers which, strange as it seems, don't allow them to
use a fixed-width font. If this applies to you, there's not
much you can do except to ask them for a newsreader which does;
or switch ISPs.
* If there are a lot of almost-blank lines in the picture, then
the message is probably suffering from `wrapping'. This
wrapping may be being done by your newsreader; see if it has an
option called `wrap long lines' or similar, and make sure it is
turned off. If this doesn't work, then the wrapping was
probably done by the news program of the person who sent the
picture, in which case there's not much you can do -- everybody
else will be seeing the same thing.
* If there are a lot of < and > symbols in the picture, with
words like HTML, FONT COLOR, B, I, and so on inside them, then
the picture has been sent in HTML format [see Question 2], and
your newsreader does not understand HTML (most newsreaders
don't).
* If you still can't work out what the picture is supposed to be,
try using a smaller font (if you can) and moving a couple of
metres away. If it still looks unrecognizable, then it's
probably a problem with the news program used by the person
who sent the message -- or maybe it's just a really bad
picture!
6. How do I draw my own ASCII art?
-----------------------------------
[shouldn't have a tutorial here -- point to others instead]
[mention TheDraw (URL???) and Emacs' M-x picture-mode]
You don't need a special program to draw ASCII art. It can be
drawn using any text editor, such as SimpleText or BBEdit in MacOS,
Notepad in Windows, nedit, vi, or pico in Unix, BEd or AZ in
AmigaOS, edit in DOS, or any of the various Emacs editors. You can
use a word processor to draw ASCII art, but remember: (1) use a
fixed-width font [see Question 4]; and (2) using any special
formatting (bold/italic/coloured etc) is a waste of time, as it
will be lost when you post the picture.
There are some features of editors and word processors which can
help when drawing ASCII art.
* Overtype, also known as overstrike: removes the need for you to
constantly realign characters using the Backspace, Space, and
Delete keys. Try the Insert key if there is one on your
keyboard, or look in your program's Options or Preferences.
* Rectangular copy and paste: allows you to select rectangular
sections of text (not just rows or parts of rows). On programs
which have this feature, it is usually done by holding down a
key such as Ctrl while selecting text.
* Find/Change: allows you to change all the characters of one
value to another (eg change all the ~s to "s).
But before you start, a word about fonts. For ASCII art you should
use a fixed-width font [see Question 4], because every type of
computer system is guaranteed to have one, and that after all is
one of the main reasons ASCII art exists -- because everyone can
view it. Different fixed- width fonts do vary slightly in the
height of the characters, but for most drawings this doesn't matter
that much.
DON'T try to post pictures drawn in a proportional-width (ie
non-fixed-width) font: even if you specify the exact font you used,
the chances of other people being able to read it are pretty slim
(even `standard' proportional fonts such as Times New Roman can
vary in width from computer to computer).
The other thing to be aware of with fonts is the difference between
serif and sans serif. Here's roughly how an `m' looks in both:
__ __ __ __ __
|/ \ / \ |/ \ / \
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
_|_ _|_ _|_ | | |
Serif Sans serif
The serif version has little strokes, or serifs, at the end of most
of the main strokes, while the sans serif version doesn't (sans
means `without'). For example, Courier is a serif font, and Monaco
is sans serif. This isn't often important, but if you're using a
sans serif font, just remember to use the vertical bar (|, above \
on most keyboards) to draw vertical lines, and not the capital i
(I), otherwise it will look weird for people using serif fonts. It
also means that you should think carefully before using characters
like L and 7 for various corners -- they won't always look that
good with a serif font.
One way to make drawing ASCII art easier is to type a row of spaces
for however wide you want your picture, and then copy this row and
paste it for however many rows high you think your art will get.
Then turn overtype on, stick your cursor somewhere in the middle,
and you're ready to draw.
If nothing springs to mind immediately, start with the ASCII art
equivalent of the stick figure:
O
/H\ Person
/ \
Fiddle with it, and see what you can do ...
A _ o _
O Person wearing O` _O_ (< = Person about
/H\ a dunce's hat /H\ Professor XHX Angel /H-' to eat a
/ \ / \ / \ / \ sandwich...?
Gradually you'll be able to add things like scenery around the
person:
___ ,---.
/ __\/---. ._,
/ \@-. -(_)-
@ ' ` Person playing a banjo
,P while sitting against a
d'O_, palm tree ...
____@/|/________
::::@\O_,:::::::
::::::::::::mt-3
Draw your cat, your toaster, your musical instruments, your
partner, anything that will sit still long enough -- practice
makes, if not perfect, then at least pretty good. Whether you do
small drawings (less work involved) or large ones (easier to make a
drawing recognizable) is up to you.
The things which give beginning ASCII artists the most trouble are
usually diagonal lines and circles. Here are some lines of various
angles:
| | / ,' ,-' _,-'
| .' / ,' ,-' _,-'
| | / ,' ,-' _,-' __..--""
| .' / ,' ,-' _,-' __..--""
| | / ,' ,-' ,-' __..--"" _______________
And here are a few circular shapes:
_____ __
.-' `-. ,dP""Yb,
.' `. ,d" "b,
/ \ d' _ `Y,
_ ; : 8 8 `b
__ ,'" "`. | | `b,_,aP P
__ ,' `. / \ : ; """" d'
.' `. / | | | \ / ,P"
_ | | | / \ / `. .' a,.__,aP"
o (_) `.__.' `.__.' `.___.' `-._____.-' `"""''
The spiral is a good example of *anti-aliasing* -- using the
particular shape of some characters (especially b, d, and P) to
smooth the edge of a solid shape.
A final point: don't use the Tab key. Pressing Tab will go along a
certain number of spaces in your editor/word processor -- but that
`certain number' is different for different newsreaders, editors,
and so on, so your picture may suffer from what is known as `tab
damage' when other people try to view it. Just use spaces instead.
[See Question 12 for links to other tutorials on drawing ASCII
art.]
[...]
# (hash/pound):
a hash symbol on most computers, a pound (currency) symbol on
some British ones
| (bar):
a vertical line in most fonts, but in some it is split in the
middle
^ (caret):
differs in size depending on the font used
~ (tilde):
appears in the middle of the line in some fonts, at the top in
others
' (apostrophe/single quote):
tilts southwest-northeast in some fonts, is vertical in others
(this also applies to the comma (,)).
7. So now I've drawn it, how should I post it?
-----------------------------------------------
[subject line, Outlook Express bugs, instructions for common
Usenet readers]
[incorporate Colin's warning]
[link to Martin's patch for the Outlook Express 4 bug]
[what exactly is the situation with the OE 5 bugs???]
It doesn't matter if your ASCII art isn't particularly good; we'd
like to see it anyway. We won't be rude about it (although you'd
better tell us what it is, or we might ask :-), but if it shows
potential, you may find that other people will `re-diddle' it --
change a few characters, make it a bit better, and re-post it.
HOWEVER, there are a few things you should check before you
post any piece of ASCII art.
* Are you sending it as plain text? Some news programs,
particularly those built in to Web browsers, read and write
messages in HTML (HyperText Markup Language, the language which
Web pages are written in). HTML allows colours and (using
JavaScript) animations in ASCII art, but few newsreaders
support it, and those which don't will show a whole lot of
garbage text with your picture hidden inside it.
So if you have one of these HTML-sending programs, PLEASE
select the option which tells it to send messages as plain text
only. If you have a picture which uses HTML for a particular
feature (such as colours or animation), put it on a Web page,
and post the URL of the page to alt.ascii-art, rather than
posting the whole picture.
* Is it under 72 characters wide? Most news readers can only show
lines which are under either 72, 76, or 80 characters wide, so
if your picture is wider than 72 characters it may get wrapped
[see Question 4). Also remove any unnecessary space characters
from the end of each line of the picture, to prevent lines from
being too long (and getting wrapped) without your realizing.
* Have you used any control codes? Inserting control codes (ASCII
characters 0 to 31) in a picture can sometimes achieve
interesting effects on your computer screen or news reader,
such as reversing text, changing its colour, and so on. DO NOT
post any of these pictures to alt.ascii-art, for two reasons:
1. the effects that the control codes have on your news reader
are almost certainly going to be different from those on
the thousands of other news readers that other people use
2. on some news readers, control codes can cause messed up
displays, messages not appearing, or (in some cases) the
news reader crashing.
* If your first line starts with one or more spaces, stick a
dummy line (such as -- or .) above it, to prevent the spaces
from being ignored by your news program (this only applies to
some news programs, and only to the first line of the
message).
If you're not sure about whether your message will turn out ok,
post it to a test group (such as news:alt.test or news:misc.test)
first and make sure (using a different newsreader, if you can) that
you can read it ok.
[See Question 10 for advice on posting someone else's ASCII art.]
8. I like that ASCII picture -- can I copy it for myself?
----------------------------------------------------------
[incorporate Krogg's politeness levels]
Don't assume that if somebody posts something to a Usenet group,
that gives you the right to use it however you like; copyright
laws still apply. For more information, see the article `Copyright
Myths FAQ: 10 big myths about copyright explained' in
news:news.announce.newusers. (It is also available at
http://www.clari.net/brad/copymyths.html.)
ASCII art is often an exception to this rule, though: generally,
ASCII artists don't mind if you copy their pictures and repost them
or put them on your own Web site, as long as you don't make any
money out of them. There are a few important conditions, however.
* If the picture contains a few letters in one corner which don't
seem to be part of the picture, they're the artist's initials.
DO NOT remove these initials -- would you cut away the part of
a Van Gogh painting containing his name? Leaving the initials
on is a small price to pay for being able to use the picture
for free.
* If you're going to use a picture in your signature file, or in
a place (such as a log-in screen) which means you're going to
be using it a lot, you should really e-mail the artist (or post
to the newsgroup, if you don't know their address) and ask for
permission, because otherwise people may get the mistaken
impression that you were the one who drew the picture.
As for posting other people's ASCII art, after a discussion in
news:alt.ascii-art the following rules were agreed upon:
1. If an ASCII ART picture has initials on it, leave them on when
posting it.
2. If an ASCII ART picture doesn't have initials on it, mention
that you didn't draw it when posting it.
3. If somebody posts a picture without initials and you have an
original copy with initials, feel free to repost the original
version. The repost ought not to be taken personally, as we all
know that ASCII art often loses proper credits. Responses to the
repost are not necessary.
[Donovan]
9. I want a picture of something -- how do I ask for one?
----------------------------------------------------------
Yes, if we find it interesting. Give your request the subject
`REQ: xyz' if you're looking for a picture of an xyz, then in the
message describe more exactly what you're looking for. Generally,
the more specific you are, the more likely you are to get someone
to draw what you want: if you just say something like `can someone
draw me a fish' then you're not likely to get many replies,
because people won't be sure whether or not they're wasting their
time by drawing something you won't want. If you don't have Web
access, mention this fact, otherwise you may get replies
consisting only of URLs for the kind of pictures you're looking
for.
10. Can someone do me some cool lettering?
-------------------------------------------
Probably not, unless we're REALLY bored. The reason for this is
that there is a program called Figlet which does that sort of thing
automatically -- you type in `Jane Smith', and you get back
___ __,
( / ( o _/_ /
/ __, _ _ `. _ _ , / /_
_/_(_/(_/ /_(/_ (___)/ / /_(_(__/ /_
//
(/
in this and a whole lot of other fonts. The ASCII text-art produced
by Figlet can be quite stunning, so it's best to try it first
before asking for help from the newsgroup.
The Figlet home page is at
http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/chai/figlet.html. This site links
to the FTP site ftp://ftp.internexus.net/pub/figlet/, where you can
download versions of the program for many different platforms.
If you have a Web browser which has form support (most browsers
do), you can run Figlet on the Internet by going to one of the
following sites and choosing your text and options on the Web page.
Different sites offer different options (eg multiple fonts at once,
justification, line length etc). Some of these sites also provide
an e-mail Figlet service for people with browsers which don't
support forms.
* http://www.surfplaza.com/figlet/
* http://wwwcn.cern.ch/~rigaut/FigletJava.html
* http://www.schnoggo.com/figlet.html
* http://www.inf.utfsm.cl/cgi-bin/figlet/
* http://saigon.mit.edu/dinhyen/figlet/figlet.html
* http://www.mediacube.de/cgi-bin/moniteurs/figlet/
* http://www.sconnect.net/figlet/index.cgi
* http://boulder.Colorado.EDU/~kai/figlet.html
* http://www.ifi.unizh.ch/cgi-bin/bwagner/FIGLET/figlet.pl
* http://www.se.cuhk.edu.hk/~mcchau3/cgi-bin/express.html
* http://www.webserve.com/gateways/figletgateway.pl.
[Shimrod, Veronica Karlsson]
[need to check links]
If Figlet doesn't produce the kind of results you want, THEN you
can post to alt.ascii-art with your request. Make sure that you
include:
* the fact that you have already tried Figlet, or don't have
access to it (otherwise you will probably just get told to use
it)
* a description of the kind of lettering you want, along with any
other symbols or logos which you would like incorporated into
it.
11. How do I convert a picture to ASCII art?
--------------------------------------------
There are computer programs available which convert graphics files
of a particular format (usually GIF) to ASCII art. They go by names
such as ascgif, gifa, gifscii, and gif2ascii. Do a Web search for
any of these programs to find places where you can download them.
Try:
gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/1A/atools.70
ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii/.
However, the output from these programs is often poor (fiddling
with the picture in an image-editing program beforehand may help).
In this case, you can post a request to news:alt.ascii-art asking
for someone to `asciify' it, but PLEASE DON'T POST THE PICTURE
ITSELF. To save downloading time for people reading the messages,
if possible give the URL (Web address) of the picture instead.
If you saw the picture on a Web page, you can find out its URL by
right-clicking on it (on the Macintosh, right-clicking,
Ctrl-clicking, or holding down the mouse button) and selecting
`Open this image' (or its equivalent for your Web browser), then
copy the URL from the Location bar to your news program (make sure
you copy it exactly).
If the picture is not on a Web site anywhere, put it up on your own
site (if you have one), or get a friend to put it up on their site,
and post the URL to alt.ascii-art. If you can't do this, post your
request to alt.ascii-art and wait for an artist to reply, then
e-mail the picture to them.
12. Where do I find more ASCII art pictures and information?
------------------------------------------------------------
There are three ASCII art Usenet groups. news:alt.ascii-art is
the main group, where most of the discussion takes place.
news:rec.arts.ascii is a `best-of' group, for posting the best
ASCII art from news:alt.ascii-art. It is a moderated group -- all
messages pass through an intermediary (the moderator) who checks
them for appropriateness before sending them to the group itself.
The advantage of this is that there isn't any unwanted advertising
in the group; however, the frequency of postings to
news:rec.arts.ascii is extremely low at the time of writing (it was
resurrected in November 1997 after the previous moderator, Bob
Allison (`Scarecrow') retired in December 1996).
If your news server isn't set up to allow direct posting to
news:rec.arts.ascii, e-mail your message to the moderator, Don
Bertino: bertino-@-netcom-.-com (remove the dashes first).
news:alt.ascii-art.animation is specifically for discussion and
postings of animated ASCII art [see Question 12].
Lots of ASCII artists put up libraries of their own and others'
ASCII art on their Web sites, as well as tutorials on how to draw
ASCII art. Allen Mullen has links to many of these sites at
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/2695/links.htm.
Yahoo also has a page dedicated to ASCII art, at
http://www.yahoo.com/Arts/Visual_Arts/Computer_Generated/ASCII_Art/.
And try Joan Stark's Web site: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/.
To find out how to animate ASCII art using JavaScript, see
http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Marina/4942/faq_hta.htm and
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/9334/animlesson.htm.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[This stuff yet to be resorted from the old FAQ]
11. What should I know about signature files?
----------------------------------------------
A signature file (or `sig' for short; not to be confused with the
initials added to an ASCII picture) is a small, personalized text
file which an e-mail or news program adds to the end of every
message a person sends -- the equivalent of a letterhead for
dead-tree (paper) mail. Usually it contains little more than the
person's name, organization, and e-mail address, and an
inspirational quote of some sort; but some people like to
incorporate ASCII art into their signature files as well.
The biggest problem that this causes is the number of lines that
the signature file takes up. This is a topic which, despite its
lack of importance in relation to global warming, violence in
society, and so on, can be the subject of heated arguments. To be
brief, (almost) no-one will complain if your signature file is four
lines long or fewer -- and it is quite possible to draw good ASCII
pictures which are that small. Some examples are at:
* http://wwwtios.cs.utwente.nl/~kenter/sigs.html
* http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/sigs.htm.
Some e-mail programs don't allow you to have a signature file which
is longer than four lines, while others just complain. Five or six
lines is usually acceptable, but any longer, and you're starting to
take the risk that your signature will be longer than some of your
e-mail messages; this wouldn't really make sense on paper, so it
isn't really acceptable in cyberspace either. The exception is in
messages posted to news:alt.ascii-art itself -- we're used to seeing
long sigs, so we won't complain.
But no matter what the length of your signature, make sure it's
fewer than 72 characters wide, otherwise it may end up a horrible
mess [see Question 6].
12. Where can I find more ASCII art?
------------------------------------
THE END
This document may be freely copied as long as Matthew Thomas is
identified as the original author.
-------------------THE ASCII ART FAQ TEN COMMANDMENTS-------------------
\\\\`///
/ _ _| 1. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
(\'('\/') 2. Thou shalt not remove the
______/( >(__ initials from any ASCII art.
/`- \ \_=__| `\ 3. Thou shalt not claim ownership
/ /__( _____\ _____ of someone else's ASCII art.
/_ \.____ ," "." ",__ 4. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
| / _\__/_ - / \ 5. Thou shalt ask permission
\/ /____ \ASCII ART FAQ /// before using someone else's
) / / \__\ - | ASCII art.
'-.__|_/ ///| I VI | 6. Thou shalt not sell someone
\_ | | | else's ASCII art.
| | II VII | 7. Thou shalt read the darn FAQ.
\ | | | 8. Thou shalt not post someone
/ | III VIII | else's ASCII art without making
\ | | | clear that you didn't make it.
\_ | IV IX | 9. Thou shalt not assume that
\| | | ASCII art isn't art at all.
| V X | 10. Thou shalt read the FAQing FAQ.
|______b'ger______|
-----------[Joris Bellenger, Colin Douthwaite, Matthew Thomas]----------
llizard
wrote:
>
> Matthew Thomas wrote:
> [...]
> > The reason I've published this in its unfinished state is so people can
> > stop me before I go off and do anything badly wrong.
>
>
[snip]
>
> :)
> Andreas
> .---...__ ..
> ____ '| ASCII `:;=-.
> http://www.stud.uni-hannover.de/~freise ___ || ART )| [)
> __________ `==-...___''.-.|
> ______________________________________________ ((o)(o)'`-(o)'__________
> """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""a:f
Things look fine to me so far. I have only one minor point (an html
issue). I recently found out that for linking to a newsgroup, one must
include the two slashes after the colon.
<A HREF="news://alt.ascii-art">alt.ascii-art</a>
I think your decision to avoid CSS like the plague is a wise one. (It's
a selfish reason; I still happily use Netscape 3, which does not support
CSS and makes pages that use it look not even remotely like the creator
has intended.)
___|___
| __|
|--@./ww| ~---,
| (\ | \_,^%---
| "` | /> \ The colours get very messed up
_|_______|_ ___/ > and/or eliminated entirely.
/|\ (# o) >
/ | \ '-~ /|^^
ejm / | \ | \
NOTE: I do not pick up my mail from the idirect address. If you
are e-mailing and hit the reply button, add an "e" to "freent";
its absense is to stop the torment of automatic mailers.
--
___ cq547@freene+.+oron+o.on.ca
_/ | ,^%--- llizard aka ejm
|_____| __<_ \ Keep up the good work!
--- == >/
[_____] __>,^ ASCII-ar+, ASCII & gif anima+ions
ejm| | //| | www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/9334/
Ilmari Karonen
: The one exception is Martin's suggestion of CSS for prettying up the
: HTML version. Martin, I wouldn't touch CSS with a bargepole until at
: least 50 percent of Web surfers are using Netscape/Mozilla 5.0, which is
: the only browser which can handle CSS properly!
Huh? I know that very few browsers get all the CSS features right, but
that's never stopped me from using the simpler ones that do work. (Nor the
others - the whole idea of CSS is that the documents should be readable
without it, the style sheets just make them prettier.)
: cost for you.) Anyone else who wants to put up a mirror should let me
: know what its address is going to be in the same way.
Well, I'm willing to set up a mirror, say, at
http://www.sci.fi/~iltzu/ascii/faq.html
I also came up with an idea of serving the FAQ by email - I have a
suitable autoresponder set up, except (Martin, I suppose you're reading
this) that my ISP has apparently somehow screwed up formail since the
last time I used it. I'm mailing them about it, let's see if it'll work
soon.
--
Ilmari Karonen (il...@sci.fi) | Was at a bookstore today, [snip] and noticed
http://www.sci.fi/~iltzu/ | "Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 for Dummies"
Will fix broken HTML for food | . . . and thought "Yes". -- Jeff Vinocur
Ilmari Karonen
: Things look fine to me so far. I have only one minor point (an html
: issue). I recently found out that for linking to a newsgroup, one must
: include the two slashes after the colon.
: <A HREF="news://alt.ascii-art">alt.ascii-art</a>
AAGH! That's definitely not a valid URL! The slashes are (in general) only
used for services like HTTP and FTP that allow directory paths.
: I think your decision to avoid CSS like the plague is a wise one. (It's
: a selfish reason; I still happily use Netscape 3, which does not support
: CSS and makes pages that use it look not even remotely like the creator
: has intended.)
Hmmph. That's because a determined person can make a mess of anything,
even CSS. By definition anything that *requires* CSS to be usable is
abusing CSS.
See http://www.htmlhelp.com/reference/css/dependence.html
Donovan
I agree in NOT using these slashes. This is real bad html use!
Donovan
humanly possible! Thanks Mathew for taking on this ugly task.
If you want help with proofreading and formatting, please let
me know, as I will be home until the 5th of April.
http://www.misslink.net/donovan/asciifaq.html
The minute you have a final version, I will get my site updated.
--
Peace,
Donovan
/\ `_ , p e A c e c A m http://www.misslink.net/donovan/
/_|\ -(_)- This is your portal to Ascii-Art, Kool-Aid, poetry,
/_|__\ , ` The Secret Link Game, DA QUIZ!, ZDTV, & the webcam.
/_|__|_\ Mailto:don...@misslink.net ICQ#: 812836
_-/_|__|__|\_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_dwb_-
.,_, EVANS PLUNGE BEANIE BABIES PRICE LIST
(O,O) http://www.misslink.net/donovan/bb1.html
( ) New & Retired Beanies available. Prices at $6.95!
-"-"--------------------------------------------------------------dwb-
Matthew Thomas wrote in message <36FD0B63...@spamfree.land>...
llizard
wrote:
>
> On Sun, 28 Mar 1999 08:39:31 -0500, llizard (lli...@iNOdirect.ca) wrote:
> : Things look fine to me so far. I have only one minor point (an html
> : issue). I recently found out that for linking to a newsgroup, one must
> : include the two slashes after the colon.
>
> : <A HREF="news://alt.ascii-art">alt.ascii-art</a>
>
> AAGH! That's definitely not a valid URL! The slashes are (in general) only
> used for services like HTTP and FTP that allow directory paths.
And in article <loNL2.35$i%5.1...@news15.ispnews.com>, "Donovan"
<don...@misslink.net> wrote:
>
> ><A HREF="news://alt.ascii-art">alt.ascii-art</a>
>
> I agree in NOT using these slashes. This is real bad html use!
I humbly beg your collective pardons. We recently downloaded Opera and I
have been reading the newsgroup opera.page-display (news host:
opera.nta.no). I guess one can't believe everything one reads. Of
course, I can't find the article NOW but I'm sure I read that these
slashes were to be used for news as well.
I now stand corrected and promise that I will never again put my oar in
where it doesn't belong.
+_ +_ +_ +_ +_ +_ \ / |_| ^ + ') |
C C C C C C \^/ | | /-\ | ! .
</\_ </\_ </\_ </\_ </\_ </\_
/\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ |\ | [ \ / [ |) ') ') ')
/ / / / / / / / / / / / | \| [ \/ [ |\ ! ! !
(These are supposed to be sailors from the HMS Pinafore)
NOTE: I do not pick up my mail from the idirect address. If you
are e-mailing and hit the reply button, add an "e" to "freent";
its absense is to stop the torment of automatic mailers.
--
___ cq547@freene+.+oron+o.on.ca
_/ | ,^%--- llizard aka ejm
|_____| __<_ \ Well... hardly ever!
Matt Kane's Brain
> And in article <loNL2.35$i%5.1...@news15.ispnews.com>, "Donovan"
> <don...@misslink.net> wrote:
> >
> > ><A HREF="news://alt.ascii-art">alt.ascii-art</a>
> >
> > I agree in NOT using these slashes. This is real bad html use!
>
> I humbly beg your collective pardons. We recently downloaded Opera and I
> have been reading the newsgroup opera.page-display (news host:
> opera.nta.no). I guess one can't believe everything one reads. Of
> course, I can't find the article NOW but I'm sure I read that these
> slashes were to be used for news as well.
Actually, the URL for that would be news://opera.nta.no/opera.page-display
--
|\ |\|\ ||_\|/_|_ "Probably the most marvelous fugue
|_\| |_\||__|\ | was that between the Hatfields and
| pro\|jekt2501 the McCoys."
ka...@egr.uri.edu --Author unknown
LDB
> [what exactly is the situation with the OE 5 bugs???]
One of the first things I want to do when Im on my computer again is
download IE 5. LOL What bugs does it have already? Are they still
making life difficult for those of us who like to use FixedSys?
Re The FAQ:
>
> * Is it under 72 characters wide? Most news readers can only show
> lines which are under either 72, 76, or 80 characters wide, so
> if your picture is wider than 72 characters it may get wrapped
> [see Question 4). Also remove any unnecessary space characters
> from the end of each line of the picture, to prevent lines from
> being too long (and getting wrapped) without your realizing.
I have found the best way to be sure of width is to create ascii in
NotePad. If it fits in there it never has any trouble fitting anywhere
else. By fitting I mean NotePad doesnt stretch to accomodate it. Does
anyone else do this?
Another point to add here is to highlight the whole ascii pic and look
for extra spaces that need to be deleted.
>8. I like that ASCII picture -- can I copy it for myself?
>----------------------------------------------------------
> [incorporate Krogg's politeness levels]
A good addition to the FAQ.
>
> Lots of ASCII artists put up libraries of their own and others'
> ASCII art on their Web sites, as well as tutorials on how to draw
> ASCII art. Allen Mullen has links to many of these sites at
> http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/2695/links.htm.
>
> Yahoo also has a page dedicated to ASCII art, at
> http://www.yahoo.com/Arts/Visual_Arts/Computer_Generated/ASCII_Art/.
> And try Joan Stark's Web site: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/.
I am editor of the ascii art section of the Open Directory search
engine. Its not as well known as Yahoo but we have a lot fewer broken
and/or outdated links. The URL is: http://dmoz.org/Arts/ASCII/
Happy Spring,
Laura
Martin Atkins
|
|
|4. ... MIRRORS
|The mirror addresses a couple of paragraphs down from the start are
|currently marked in [brackets] with the current version numbers for
|their copies of the FAQ. This is partly a wake-up call to those of you
|who have out-of-date copies on their sites, and partly a way of setting
|up the definitive list of mirrors.
|
|The person responsible for each copy listed below should reply to this
|message before 15 April 1999, stating their intention to keep their copy
|up-to-date (or not), and which address it is; if not, I'll remove the
|address of their copy from the list of mirrors. (Reply in alt.ascii-art,
|not by e-mail please, it's cheaper for me and probably no different in
|cost for you.) Anyone else who wants to put up a mirror should let me
|know what its address is going to be in the same way.
|
|Mirrors registered in this way will be shown by a * next to the address
|in later postings of this message. This is the first posting of this
|message. If you replied to this message saying that you would put up a
|mirror copy, and the next posting does not show a * next to your
|address, then I have probably not seen your message -- try again by
|replying to the next message.
Weeeel... Can I suggest that you hold off on this Mirrors thing until the
fate is decided for the 'faqs on the web' site and the other documents
(which were supposedly going to be linked at appropriate places in this FAQ)
It was my understanding that there was to be a mailing list for the entire
faq hosting site (that's this FAQ document, and whichever other ones survive
our new quality-control guidelines, plus the index document and the mirrors
list.) See the thread 'FAQs: What to do?' which I started, for more info on
what it currently going on in this discussion.
.----------------------------------
|
|Author: Matthew Thomas (spiff @ 3dmail . com)
'---------------------------------- /|\
Hmmm! --------------------------------'
New address eh?
.----------------------------------
|
|Mirror copies are available at
|o http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/faq.htm [2.0]
|o http://artpacks.acid.org/faqs/faq-altasciiart.html [2.0]
|o http://vibes.vossnet.co.uk/i/ighaig/ascfaq.htm [2.0]
|o http://www.stud.uni-hannover.de/~freise/ascii/faq.html
|o http://www.misslink.net/donovan/asciifaq.html [2.0.mga1]
|o http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/8608/faq.html [1.0.3]
|o
|http://www.ludd.luth.se/users/vk/pics/ascii/junkyard/techstuff/FAQ/FAQ_Matthew_Thomas.html [1.0.3].
'----------------------------------
As I said in my last message (I believe),
vibes.vossnet.co.uk/i/ighaig/ascfaq.htm has been superseded by the copy at
my 'all the faqs' site
http://voices.vossnet.co.uk/a/atkins/aaafaq/aaafaq.txt. (and the mirrors of
that)
VK... I think you really should find a way of shortening that URL... What
about http://www.ludd.luth.se/~vk/aaafaq/aaafaq.txt ? Much shorter and
managable. (Incidentally, Matthew, w.l.l.s/~vk/ is the same as /users/vk/
and is shorter!
.----------------------------------
|1. What's going on here?
|--------------------------
| You're probably reading this because it's been posted to
| news:alt.ascii-art or news:alt.ascii-art.animation. If you're not,
| jump in and take a look. In these Usenet groups people discuss
| ASCII art, request ASCII art, post ASCII art, post improved versions
| or variations of other people's ASCII art, and generally have fun.
'----------------------------------
I like! Good, short, concise intro. Muy bien.
.----------------------------------
|2. What is ASCII art?
|----------------------
| I thought you'd never ask! ASCII art is any sort of picture or
| diagram drawn with the printing characters in the ASCII character
| set. (For more about ASCII, see Question 3.)
|
| Probably the most common ASCII art picture is the smiley -- :-) --
| but it gets a lot more sophisticated than that. Here's a small ASCII
| picture of a snow-scene paperweight, drawn by Joan Stark:
| ____
| .-" +' "-.
| /.'.'A_'*`.\
| |:.*'/\-\. ':|
| |:.'.||"|.'*:|
| \:~^~^~^~^:/
| /`-....-'\
| jgs / \
| `-.,____,.-'
|
| If this picture looks very strange and you can't really tell what it
| is, don't panic -- see Question 5.
|
\
> SNIP the rest
/
'-----------------------------
Much better. The 'I thought you'd never ask' is good... for one thing it
makes the FAQ seem more friendly.
.-----------------------------
|3. What's ASCII, then?
|-----------------------
| ASCII (short for the American Standard Code for Information
| Interchange) is a basic set of 128 numbered symbols which almost all
| kinds of computer can display. Here are the ones that are used for
| ASCII art:
\
> SNIP again
/
'---------------------------------
Good again, (although I don't know if this has changed or not) This gets the
message across in laymans terms.
.------------------------------
|
|4. What *isn't* ASCII art?
|---------------------------
|
| Sometimes people confuse ASCII art with other things, and posting
| these other things to the ASCII art Usenet groups tends to annoy us.
| The Rogue's Gallery is as follows.
|
'---------------------------
Also good.
.-----------------------------
|5. How do I view ASCII art properly?
|-------------------------------------
| [Merge with Martin's `ASCII art not looking right? Read this!']
'-----------------------------
Ahh yes, the merging has begun. :o)
.-----------------------------
| [Include instructions for common e-mail programs/Usenet readers]
'-----------------------------
There's instructions for Outlook Express in 'All you need for ASCII Art:...'
and of course the registry patch. Both are on my FAQ site if you want to
look at them. (same addy as above, but without the aaafaq.txt)
.-----------------------------
| If a picture you see posted to one of the ASCII art Usenet groups
| looks a complete mess to you, don't panic. There are several
| reasons why it may look weird.
|
| * If *none* of the pictures in the group look like what the
| sender describes them as, then you're probably using a
| proportional font. To view (and draw) ASCII art, you must use a
| fixed-width font -- one where all characters are the same width
| (like on an ordinary typewriter). If you're not sure if your
| font is fixed-width or not, check the following two lines and
| see if they're the same length.
|
| iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii|
| mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm|
|
| If they aren't, find the option in your newsreader which lets
| you specify which font to use. If you just have a choice
| between proportional and fixed width, choose fixed width. If
\
> SNIP
/
'---------------------------
This is basically what it says in my document, but mine goes into it a
little more, with examples.
.---------------------------
|6. How do I draw my own ASCII art?
|-----------------------------------
| [shouldn't have a tutorial here -- point to others instead]
| [mention TheDraw (URL???) and Emacs' M-x picture-mode]
'---------------------------
About the tutorial... shall I have a bash at rehashing Daniel Au's tutorial,
bringing up to date anything that needs changing, etc?
TheDraw's URL is in the 'All you need for ASCII Art...' document.
.--------------------------------
| You don't need a special program to draw ASCII art. It can be
| drawn using any text editor, such as SimpleText or BBEdit in MacOS,
| Notepad in Windows, nedit, vi, or pico in Unix, BEd or AZ in
| AmigaOS, edit in DOS, or any of the various Emacs editors. You can
| use a word processor to draw ASCII art, but remember: (1) use a
| fixed-width font [see Question 4]; and (2) using any special
| formatting (bold/italic/coloured etc) is a waste of time, as it
| will be lost when you post the picture.
\
> SNIP!
/
'--------------------------
The 'All you need for ASCII Art...' would be a good thing to link to here,
since it is a list of Monospaced fonts and text editors, with more examples
than are given here. Those people that can't get it set up from here can
then go and look at my document for more examples to help them along.
.--------------------------
|7. So now I've drawn it, how should I post it?
|-----------------------------------------------
| [subject line, Outlook Express bugs, instructions for common
| Usenet readers]
| [incorporate Colin's warning]
| [link to Martin's patch for the Outlook Express 4 bug]
| [what exactly is the situation with the OE 5 bugs???]
'--------------------------
<clarify>My patch does not fix the 'bug' in OE4, it merely sets it up to
post in Plain Text and use a monospaced font for reading and writing to
newsgroups. No bug-fix in it (yet).</clarify>
The OE5 'Bugs' are the same as the OE4 ones, but with more added - like the
'file://' whenever you have a '//' followed by a character. (I think)
Colin's warning about 'control codes' could do with some rehashing, since it
has a bit more than control codes in it after the second revision --- but
that's OK for this document as long as you don't refer to them as Control
Codes.
.------------------------------
|
|8. I like that ASCII picture -- can I copy it for myself?
|----------------------------------------------------------
| [incorporate Krogg's politeness levels]
|
| Don't assume that if somebody posts something to a Usenet group,
| that gives you the right to use it however you like; copyright
| laws still apply. For more information, see the article `Copyright
| Myths FAQ: 10 big myths about copyright explained' in
| news:news.announce.newusers. (It is also available at
| http://www.clari.net/brad/copymyths.html.)
'-------------------------------------
I wrote this a few days ago...
,. .---. ,--. ,-_/ ,-_/ ,. . .
/ | \___ | `-' ' | ' | / | ,-. |- ,-. ,-. ,-|
/~~|-. \ | . .^ | .^ | /~~|-. | | ,-| | | | |
,' `-' `---' `--' `--' `--' ,' `-' ' `' `-^ ' ' `-^
,--. . . ,
| `-' ,-. ,-. . . ,-. . ,-. |-. |- ) ,-. . , , ,-.
| . | | | | | | | | | | | | | / ,-| |/|/ `-.
`--' `-' |-' `-| ' ' `-| ' ' `' `--' `-^ ' ' `-'
| /| ,|
' `-' `' By Martin Atkins
This document describes how copyright laws affect ASCII Art.
Facts about ASCII Art copyright:
* ASCII Art is copyrighted.
* Just because ASCII Art is posted to the Internet, doesn't make it
public domain.
* Fair Use allows you to quote ascii pictures when replying to messages
to comment on them.
* An ascii picture based on a logo, other ascii picture, photo, diagram
etc is a copyright infringement, but that is rarely inforced.
* While ASCII Art has no commercial value, it is still a violation to
distribute it without permission.
However, on alt.ascii-art these are usually the case:
* Most ascii artists don't mind you copying their art and distributing
it, so long as the initials/name are left intact.
* Deriving your work from other pictures (diddling) is usually accepted
gratefully.
* Creating ascii pictures from tv programs, logos, photos etc is
usually ok by the copyright holders (but do check if in doubt!)
Notice the *usually* - Creators of pics are allowed to protect them and
the creators of things that you do an ascii picture of are perfectly
within their rights to sue you.
This document was written with the aid of the 'Copyright Myths FAQ: 10
big myths about copyright explained' which is at:
http://www.clari.net/brad/copymyths.html
Perhaps there is some way this could be incorporated? (but in a more subtle
way!)
.---------------------------------
|9. I want a picture of something -- how do I ask for one?
|----------------------------------------------------------
| Yes, if we find it interesting. Give your request the subject
| `REQ: xyz' if you're looking for a picture of an xyz, then in the
'---------------------------
Erk... that doesn't really make sense :o)
.--------------------------------
|10. Can someone do me some cool lettering?
|-------------------------------------------
'--------------------------------
Better title... well done :o)
.----------------------------------
|11. How do I convert a picture to ASCII art?
|--------------------------------------------
| There are computer programs available which convert graphics files
| of a particular format (usually GIF) to ASCII art. They go by names
| such as ascgif, gifa, gifscii, and gif2ascii. Do a Web search for
| any of these programs to find places where you can download them.
| Try:
|
| gopher://twinbrook.cis.uab.edu/1A/atools.70
| ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow/Gifscii/.
'-----------------------------
I think you should put something like 'The best results can be got by
loading up a text editor and producing a "conversion" yourself' or words to
that effect, to encorage people to have a go on their own first.
.-----------------------------
|
|12. Where do I find more ASCII art pictures and information?
|------------------------------------------------------------
| There are three ASCII art Usenet groups. news:alt.ascii-art is
| the main group, where most of the discussion takes place.
|
| news:rec.arts.ascii is a `best-of' group, for posting the best
| ASCII art from news:alt.ascii-art. It is a moderated group -- all
| messages pass through an intermediary (the moderator) who checks
| them for appropriateness before sending them to the group itself.
| The advantage of this is that there isn't any unwanted advertising
| in the group; however, the frequency of postings to
| news:rec.arts.ascii is extremely low at the time of writing (it was
|
'-----------------------------------
I think that some of the documents that follow this should be rehashed and
put up with the other stuff on the 'alt.ascii-art FAQ site' mirrors. If we
can have one site (mirrored obv) with everything available on every mirror,
it will make it easier to write in the FAQ and for people to find.
*repeating example from the 'FAQs: What to do?' thread*
You can say at the top...
Throughout this document, other documents are reffered to without any urls.
They are all available from the following alt.ascii-art document site
mirrors:
http://voices.vossnet.co.uk/a/atkins/aaafaq/
http://website.lineone.net/~martin.atkins/aaafaq/
... etc
Just put the file name given below onto the end of these addresses to find
the referenced document.
and then in the appropriate section say
'see aaahowtoanimate.txt for more information om creating ascii art
animations'
(or something like that)
My opinions...
Martin Atkins
What about this tutorial?
,-,-,-. .
`,| | | ,-. | , . ,-. ,-. . . ,-. . . ,-. ,-. . , , ,-.
| ; | . ,-| |< | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |/|/ | |
' `-' `-^ ' ` ' ' ' `-| `-| `-' `-^ ' `-' ' ' ' '
,| /|
`' `-'
,. .---. ,--. ,-_/ ,-_/ ,. .
/ | \___ | `-' ' | ' | / | ,-. |-
/~~|-. \ | . .^ | .^ | /~~|-. | |
,' `-' `---' `--' `--' `--' ,' `-' ' `'
A short tutorial on making and posting ASCII Art
By Martin Atkins (March 1999)
This document was based on 'Make a Start in ASCII Art' by Daniel Au
Stop before asking for an ascii picture of a whatever, or ascii for a
logo... wouldn't it be more fun to make your own? Perhaps you could
create a beautiful piece of ASCII Artwork and share it with us all at
alt.ascii-art!
If you would like to learn how to make ascii art, this tutorial should
help you get started.
-._.-> Quick Start
"""""""""""
You don't need a special program to make ASCII Art, you can make it in
any text editor, or another program that allows you to type characters
from the keyboard.
You should, however, make sure that it is producing plain text (no
colours, bold etc) and is set to a monospaced font. A monospaced (or
fixed width) font is one where all of the characters are the same
width.
In a monospaced font, these two lines will be the same length:
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM|
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII|
If they aren't, then you aren't using a monospaced font. Experiment
with available fonts until you find one that makes those two lines
match up.
-._.-> Making a picture
""""""""""""""""
The best way to pick up ascii art is to try it. Find a nice text editor
(most computers will have one, look for Notepad, Edit, Nisus, Ed...)
and load it up.
Just fiddle around a little to get a feel of what shapes each character
makes, and then try to put them together to make a shape:
o
-|- ASCII Art Stickman!
/ \
Try making this stickman do things, like...
o/ o
'| Waving... -|- o or Kicking a ball!
/ \ |'.
Now look around where you are now... can you see anything interesting
to make an ascii art of? Computers make very good 'first pictures',
because they are mostly rectangular and so easy to shape. Have a go at
showing your computer in ASCII Art. Try not to produce *exactly* what
you see, but enough detail that the eye assumes the extra detail. This
takes some practice, but once you've mastered it you can make almost
anything!
How about a person? This is a good thing to do next. The best place to
start is not a specific person, but a generic one ... that way you can
concentrate on forming a person-shape without worrying about the exact
details of a person and possibly offending them!
I've gone for a cartoony sort of person, since less details are needed
to produce it. Let's start with the head...
/"""""\
| (o|o) |
| _\ |
| '---' |
\_____/ mga
| |
See how you see a human face, but know that it's very unlikely you will
ever meet anyone who looks like this? This is what I mean by not
producing exactly what something looks like.
Let's continue the picture...
/"""""\
| (o|o) |
| _\ |
| '---' |
\_____/
___| |___
/ '-' \
| . . |
| | | |
| | | |
\_|_____|_/
/_| |_\
| .-. |
| | | |
'._| |_.'
/__| |__\ mga
Since it is a cartoon, I didn't worry too much about the proportions.
If this was a serious picture, the legs would be far too short for the
rest if the body, but you get the general idea.
-._.-> Diagonal Lines
Notice on the bottom of the trousers I have used the full stop and
apostrophe characters to produce I greater diagonal line than the slash
offers. This is the basis for producing lines in ascii art. This one
takes some time to master, but here are some lines to show you how to
construct a few 'odd' angles...
| | / ,' ,-' _,-'
| .' / ,' ,-' _,-'
| | / ,' ,-' _,-' __..--""
| .' / ,' ,-' _,-' __..--""
| | / ,' ,-' ,-' __..--"" _______________
-._.-> Adding more detail
We can make our picture more interesting by adding some extra details.
Just add anything that makes the picture look more like what it's meant
to be, or looks cool.
I'll just make a minor adjustment...
/"""""\
| (o|o) |
| _\ |
| '---' |
\_____/
___| |___
/ '-' \
| . . | What young person would be seen
| |Robik| | without his expensive brand-name
| | './ | | sweatshirt?
\_|_____|_/
/_| |_\
| .-. |
| | | |
'._| |_.'
/__| |__\ mga
-._.-> Background detail
At the moment, our person is standing in a blank void. Why don't we add
some interesting backdrop to the picture?
Since my picture is of a young man, where better to stand him than in
front of a shop in town?
-----------------------------------.---------.----------
.----------. | .-----. ||"""""""""
.-------. .------ /"""""\ | | | ||
|FOREMEN| |..-.-.| (o|o) | _| | | ||
|WANTED | |_.=-.-| _\ | / | | | ||
'-------' '----- | '---' | |""| | | ||
.------. .-----. \_____/ | | '-. | ||
|.----.| |ASCII ___| |___ |""| | | ||_________
||Sulk|| |MONTH / '-' \ | | .-' | |__________
||Kit || ||""| | . . | |""| | | |__|___|___
_________________ | |Robik| | |__| | | ||___|___|_
================= | | './ | | ===| |mga | |__|___|___
\_|_____|_/ | '-----' ||___|___|_
__________________ /_| |_\ ____|_________|__|___|___
/ | .-. |
| | | | /
/ '._| |_.' /
/ /__| |__\
________________________________________________________
___/_________/________/________/_______/_______/______/_
___|_________|________|________|_______|_______|______|_
And here we have what is a pretty good ascii are picture! With more
tweaking it can be made even better.
-._.-> Finishing it off
You may have noticed that in the example pictures above there are three
letters floating about apparently for no reason... 'mga'.
When you make ascii art, should put your name or initials somewhere on
it to identify it as yours. My initials are mga, which is where the mga
comes from!
Try to find a place where the initials don't spoil the picture, like on
a wall, or a screen...
-._.-> Going public... releasing your picture to alt.ascii-art!
Once you are happy with your picture, and have added your initials, you
can post it to alt.ascii-art. Paste it into your newsreader's message
composition window. Check that it is plain text (no colours or styles)
and in a monospaced font before posting.
You might want to mention that this is your first pic when you post it.
Check back to alt.ascii-art a few days later, and you may find that
some people have responded to your picture. They may have written a
'Cool pic!' type message, in which case you did it right! Do some more!
The other possibility is that someone is offering a suggestion for
improvement. This will come in one of two forms:
* Diddling
'Diddling' is when someone takes your picture, and changes it a
little. You shouldn't take offense at this (unless your pic has been
made offensive of course), just take heed to the suggestions and
bear them in mind for your future pictures.
* Textual Suggestion
Someone may make a suggestion like 'try to smooth out the corners
with a full stop', or 'try using a | instead of a : for vertical
lines'. These are just friendly suggestions, which you may choose to
bear in mind when you create future pictures.
Whether everyone loves your pic, or they offer suggestions, you should
still continue to produce more pics. Remember practice makes, if not
perfect, at least pretty good!
-._.-> Learning from others
The best way to learn is by example. Take a look at the ascii art in
alt.ascii-art. Note how different artists have used certain characters
to produce different shapes.
You can try some of the techniques used by other artists, and will
probably develop your own 'style' of ascii art. You can see differences
between how each artists create ascii art, some are subtle while others
are blatently obvious. Just practice and you'll get there!
-._.-> In conclusion
Anyone can create ASCII Art with a little perseverance. If you find
yourself bitten by the ASCII Art bug, please post your pictures to
alt.ascii-art - we'd love to see them!
If people like it, I'll put it up in my FAQ depository until the decision
has been reached about what will happen to the FAQ sites.
Martin Atkins
|
|I think your decision to avoid CSS like the plague is a wise one. (It's
|a selfish reason; I still happily use Netscape 3, which does not support
|CSS and makes pages that use it look not even remotely like the creator
|has intended.)
|
The way CSS works is to provide a consistant way to define styles in newer
browsers while retaining backward-compatibility.
Anything that uses CSS should still work ok in Netscape 3, it just won't
look as nice. If there's any site that won't work without CSS, it doesn't
deserve to exist! That's like saying 'I don't want people to use <FONT> tags
because they don't work in Lynx!' - you can't expect technology to stand
still while you refuse to upgrade. Reminds me of all of those Amiga500
luddites that played their part in killing off the Amiga.
And you don't do news://alt.ascii-art, you use news:alt.ascii-art. Any
publication worth it's salt (my reference here is HTML: The Definitive Guide
from O'reilly and associates) will tell you that you only use // for URLs of
services that use directories of some sort, like http, ftp and gopher.
</groan>
-Martin
Martin Atkins
|
|I also came up with an idea of serving the FAQ by email - I have a
|suitable autoresponder set up, except (Martin, I suppose you're reading
|this) that my ISP has apparently somehow screwed up formail since the
|last time I used it. I'm mailing them about it, let's see if it'll work
|soon.
|
I am indeed ... I won't try it yet then?
Martin Atkins
|
|I have found the best way to be sure of width is to create ascii in
|NotePad. If it fits in there it never has any trouble fitting anywhere
|else. By fitting I mean NotePad doesnt stretch to accomodate it. Does
|anyone else do this?
|
that's only if you have your screen resolution set to what you have it set
to... 640x480 I guess. I use 800x600 so using the notepad window makes
things about ten characters too wide.
Spunk1111
This is so intimidating... I haven't gotten through
all the new=FAQ posts and there are still
more being posted... forgive me for being so far
behind!!!
My initials thoughts... yes, a grand FAQ would
be wonderful to have. I still have a little concern
regarding postings... If there a number of "faqs"
posted, there is a good chance that someone
will read at least one of them... If there is only
one, then it might get missed... In any regard,
I think having the information in one location is
a good idea. (in case the one small faq doesn't attend to
the area of your concern).
I tried to copy/email myself the proposed new
FAQ and it 'exceeds' my copying limits... I don't
know if anyone else has had this problem.
Personally, I couldn't even post the FAQ from
my system because of it's size. I wonder if it
might affect others as well.
I have a copy of the current ascii-art FAQ at my
site.. as well as the mini-faq.. and Jorn Barger's
and Scarecrows FAQs (I don't think we need
to edit them at all... they are part of ASCII art
history)... I also have the tutorials- Daniel Aus,
Row's, Normand Vielleux, Susie Oviatt's, and
Targon's.. I link to Hayley's fine document and
have written a few words myself. My opinion,
is that if we are trying to write another tutorial,
it be just that-- > a NEW tutorial... but is it really
necessary? Tutorials vary with style. What we
have should be just fine.
I agree that we need to discuss editors and conversion
programs. People think that conversions are THE
way to create ASCII art... ack. if they would just
look at the end result, they might change their mind.
And to me, the best editor is Notepad. But if people
want to get a fancy editor, directions are helpful.
Same for conversion programs...
Definitely include the info on OE and OE5.0 --
Is Microsoft really trying to kill ASCII art off??
Anyhow, I will look closer at the proposed document.
Make some comments... BTW, I would like to continue
to have (mirror) the final FAQ document at my site.
I get a number of visitors looking for ASCII art, (over
1000 hits/day for the past 5 days), it makes sense to
have the FAQ there... Just let me know, Matthew.
Also, I will admit that I have html'ized the FAQ's I have--
all my pages have the same background and colored
text... IMO, going from a black background with white
lettering to a white background w/dark lettering, is
quite a shock to the system. I will most probably not
change on that feeling...
Martin, I got your copyright faq and will comment on
it to you later... so far, it looks pretty good.
-joan
--
joan stark spun...@juno.com
ASCII ART GALLERY: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/7373/
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
/` \/ `\ _ _ /` \/ `\ _ _ /` \/ `\ _ _ /` \/ `\
\ / /` \/ `\ \ / /` \/ `\ \ / /` \/ `\ \ /
'. .' \ / '. .' \ / '. .' \ / '. .'
\/ '. .' \/ '. .' \/ '. .' \/
jgs \/ \/ \/
Veronica Karlsson
> <snip>
>
> <A HREF="news://alt.ascii-art">alt.ascii-art</a>
>
Don't think so...
> I think your decision to avoid CSS like the plague is a wise one. (It's
> a selfish reason; I still happily use Netscape 3, which does not support
> CSS and makes pages that use it look not even remotely like the creator
> has intended.)
I use CSS and my pages look *exactly* the way I intended them in
Netscape 3. It's the browsers that do make an attempt to interpret CSS
and do it badly that are the problem.
--
(, http://www.ludd.luth.se/~vk/cgi/asciichat/
/|__--__ . __--__
|\ '__ /|\ _{ _
`.' / `.,_ _________ | _________ _,.' (/ `.
/ ||``._.' ASCII ART CHAT! `---'|:||,/
.' /| /|:| \
.' /\ \ __ __ _ `/|'\'
` `,/ /`,\ \ \ / /__ _ _ ___ _ _ (_)__ __ _ /,'\ \
.'.' /| \ V / -_) '_/ _ \ ' \| / _/ _` | |\ `.`.
,' / / | \_/\___|_| \___/_||_|_\__\__,_| | \ \ `,
- `- -- `-'- -ejm-------------------------------------VK-- -`-' -- -' -
Veronica Karlsson
> |http://www.ludd.luth.se/users/vk/pics/ascii/junkyard/techstuff/FAQ/FAQ_Matthew_Thomas.html [1.0.3].
> '----------------------------------
>
http://www.ludd.luth.se/users/vk/q/aaafaq/
(I'm willing to add more of these 'q' links if you like. Just ask...)
> VK... I think you really should find a way of shortening that URL... What
> about http://www.ludd.luth.se/~vk/aaafaq/aaafaq.txt ? Much shorter and
> managable.
"Managable" for who? It wouldn't be "managable" for ME to have HUGE
directories with tons of files, all of which had short, meaningless
names!!! The 'q' directory is where I keep "short URLs" (which are just
_links_ to other files and directories on the site) with the idea to
keep "all garbage in one place", without it affecting the directory
structure in any way.
> (Incidentally, Matthew, w.l.l.s/~vk/ is the same as /users/vk/
> and is shorter!
Well, both ways work, both ways are correct, which one I tend to use
depends on how easy it is to write the '~' character on the particular
keyboard I'm using at the moment...
--
(, http://www.ludd.luth.se/~vk/cgi/asciichat/
/|__--__ . __--__
|\ '__ /|\ _{ _
`.' / `.,_ _________ | _________ _,.' (/ `.
/ ||``._.' ASCII ART CHAT! `---'|:||,/
.' /| /|:| \
.' /\ \ __ __ _ `/|'\'
` `,/ /`,\ \ \ / /__ _ _ ___ _ _ (_)__ __ _ /,'\ \
.'.' /| \ V / -_) '_/ _ \ ' \| / _/ _` | |\ `.`.
,' / / | \_/\___|_| \___/_||_|_\__\__,_| | \ \ `,
- `- -- `-'- -ejm-------------------------------------VK-- -`-' -- -' -
Matthew Thomas
>...
> > [what exactly is the situation with the OE 5 bugs???]
>
> download IE 5. LOL What bugs does it have already? Are they still
> making life difficult for those of us who like to use FixedSys?
Um, Internet Explorer 5 is a different product from Outlook Express 5.
Internet Explorer is <trying to keep a straight face here/> just an
`update' to Windows, remember? Outlook Express is an e-mail and Usenet program.
>...
> > * Is it under 72 characters wide? Most news readers can only show
> > lines which are under either 72, 76, or 80 characters wide, so
> > if your picture is wider than 72 characters it may get wrapped
> > [see Question 4). Also remove any unnecessary space characters
> > from the end of each line of the picture, to prevent lines from
> > being too long (and getting wrapped) without your realizing.
>
> I have found the best way to be sure of width is to create ascii in
> NotePad. If it fits in there it never has any trouble fitting anywhere
> else. By fitting I mean NotePad doesnt stretch to accomodate it. Does
> anyone else do this?
That depends on (a) something not being stored in your registry to
adjust the Notepad window size, and (b) your being <insert relevant
adjective here/> enough to run Windows in the first place.
> Another point to add here is to highlight the whole ascii pic and look
> for extra spaces that need to be deleted.
Good idea.
>...
> I am editor of the ascii art section of the Open Directory search
> engine. Its not as well known as Yahoo but we have a lot fewer broken
> and/or outdated links. The URL is: http://dmoz.org/Arts/ASCII/
Oh dear, as an editor you should know that the ODP is a *directory*, not
a *search engine*! If you want a *search engine*, you should use Google (http://www.google.com/).
I agree that the ODP is a very good directory, and it's only a matter of
time before it gets larger than Yahoo, simply by sheer weight of
editors. Martin, perhaps you should discuss with Laura the possibility
of using the ODP's ASCII art FAQ section as a place for recording the
ASCII-art Documentation Archive mirror locations?
Regards
--
Matthew `pity the ODP isn't OpenContent Licensed, though' Thomas
Columnist, http://www.newsroom.co.nz/
Webmaster, http://www.ucsa.canterbury.ac.nz/clubs/kakariki/
FAQ maintainer, news:alt.ascii-art
llizard
(Martin Atkins) wrote:
>
> .----- On Sun, 28 Mar 1999 08:39:31 -0500, llizard posted:
> |
> |a selfish reason; I still happily use Netscape 3, which does not support
> |CSS and makes pages that use it look not even remotely like the creator
> |has intended.)
> |
>
> The way CSS works is to provide a consistant way to define styles in newer
> browsers while retaining backward-compatibility.
>
> Anything that uses CSS should still work ok in Netscape 3, it just won't
> look as nice. If there's any site that won't work without CSS, it doesn't
> deserve to exist! That's like saying 'I don't want people to use <FONT> tags
> because they don't work in Lynx!' - you can't expect technology to stand
> still while you refuse to upgrade. Reminds me of all of those Amiga500
> luddites that played their part in killing off the Amiga.
>|mart.atkins|
>| @ |
>|bigfoot.com|
>|Reply ROT13|
You are mistaking me. The ONLY reason I don't like CSS is because it
doesn't look as nice in Netscape 3 (with which one HAS the possibility
to see colours). Lynx does not offer colours so has nothing to do with
the argument.
I am NOT trying to stand in the way of progress.
NOTE: I do not pick up my mail from the idirect address. If you
are e-mailing and hit the reply button, add an "e" to "freent";
its absense is to stop the torment of automatic mailers.
--
,---~
/_,^%--- I just want to SEE
/> \ the colours!!!
____/ > llizard aka ejm
(#&*o) > cq547@freene+.+oron+o.on.ca
'--~ /|^^ ASCII-ar+, ASCII & gif anima+ions
ejm | \ www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/9334/
Donovan
medias, so maybe we should goto the 80/20 rule. If it effects 80% of the
world we make it so, if it only effects 20% of the world, we might have to
let it go. Just a thought. I personally could care less if a mirro site has
color or not. The only ones who use the mirror sites are the ones who go
there and usually bookmark it. Their first exposure is usually from the
newsgroup. Unless it's surfers and they have all the other links available
to them also.
--
Peace,
Donovan
/\ `_ , p e A c e c A m http://www.misslink.net/donovan/
/_|\ -(_)- This is your portal to Ascii-Art, Kool-Aid, poetry,
/_|__\ , ` The Secret Link Game, DA QUIZ!, ZDTV, & the webcam.
/_|__|_\ Mailto:don...@misslink.net ICQ#: 812836
_-/_|__|__|\_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_dwb_-
.,_, EVANS PLUNGE BEANIE BABIES PRICE LIST
(O,O) http://www.misslink.net/donovan/bb1.html
( ) New & Retired Beanies available. Prices at $6.95!
-"-"--------------------------------------------------------------dwb-
llizard wrote in message <370229...@iNOdirect.ca>...
Martin Atkins
|
|You are mistaking me. The ONLY reason I don't like CSS is because it
|doesn't look as nice in Netscape 3 (with which one HAS the possibility
|to see colours). Lynx does not offer colours so has nothing to do with
|the argument.
|
|I am NOT trying to stand in the way of progress.
|
Apologies Llizard, I was a little fired up from a heated debate (if that's
possible on a newsgroup) in another thread and I kinda took it out on you.
The best way to allow Netscape 3 to see the colours is to yse HTML 4.0
Transitional, and specify colours and the like in the document. This makes
it a pain to change styles, though. CSS is the way forward and the only way
to persuade people that it is worth upgrading browsers (if they can be
persuaded at all) is to use CSS.
Martin Atkins
|Martin Atkins wrote:
|>
|> VK... I think you really should find a way of shortening that URL...
|
|
|(I'm willing to add more of these 'q' links if you like. Just ask...)
|
|> about http://www.ludd.luth.se/~vk/aaafaq/aaafaq.txt ? Much shorter and
|> managable.
|
|directories with tons of files, all of which had short, meaningless
|names!!! The 'q' directory is where I keep "short URLs" (which are just
|_links_ to other files and directories on the site) with the idea to
|keep "all garbage in one place", without it affecting the directory
|structure in any way.
Ok, ok... remain calm. It was just a suggestion! Obviously I have no control
over your site and incidentally the /q/ has very little difference in
length. What I was talking about was that in the FAQ your URL wrapped and
spoilt the list! :o)
.--------------------------
|> (Incidentally, Matthew, w.l.l.s/~vk/ is the same as /users/vk/
|> and is shorter!
|
|Well, both ways work, both ways are correct, which one I tend to use
|depends on how easy it is to write the '~' character on the particular
|keyboard I'm using at the moment...
'------------------------------
Well, I thought so --- :o)
LDB
<mp...@spamfree.land> wrote:
>LDB wrote:
>>...
>> > [what exactly is the situation with the OE 5 bugs???]
>>
>> One of the first things I want to do when Im on my computer again is
>> download IE 5. LOL What bugs does it have already? Are they still
>> making life difficult for those of us who like to use FixedSys?
>
>Um, Internet Explorer 5 is a different product from Outlook Express 5.
>Internet Explorer is <trying to keep a straight face here/> just an
>`update' to Windows, remember? Outlook Express is an e-mail and Usenet program.
The only time Ive looked at Outlook Express was when it came tacked
onto IExplorer. So, to me they are at least kissing cousins if not
more closely related. You sound like someone using that aol thingie...
whats it called? AOLscape?
>
>That depends on (a) something not being stored in your registry to
>adjust the Notepad window size, and (b) your being <insert relevant
>adjective here/> enough to run Windows in the first place.
Are you suggesting Im not competent enough to run Windows? My 3 year
old nephew can get around on Windows well enough to play his favourite
games and uninstall my favourite freeware. Im sure it was just to make
more space for his games. :)
>> I am editor of the ascii art section of the Open Directory search
>> engine. Its not as well known as Yahoo but we have a lot fewer broken
>> and/or outdated links. The URL is: http://dmoz.org/Arts/ASCII/
>
>Oh dear, as an editor you should know that the ODP is a *directory*, not
>a *search engine*! If you want a *search engine*, you should use Google (http://www.google.com/).
>
True it is a directory but it acts remarkably like a search engine
when you type in your topic and click. Google isnt bad, btw. Ive
looked at it a couple of times. I still go to Hotbot first and
HotSheet next. I used to like Excite best but its so full of
advertising it takes longer to load each time I go there. Yahoo is
getting to be the elephant graveyard for dead links. ODP is certainly
interesting. I think there will always be an edge of chaos there but
thats part of the charm, you never know what you might find.
>I agree that the ODP is a very good directory, and it's only a matter of
>time before it gets larger than Yahoo, simply by sheer weight of
>editors. Martin, perhaps you should discuss with Laura the possibility
>of using the ODP's ASCII art FAQ section as a place for recording the
>ASCII-art Documentation Archive mirror locations?
Martin, you dont have to discuss it, just do it. Anyone else with an
ascii page is welcome to have a look and see if the URL is already in
the directory or needs to be added.
Laura
Editor and List Manager - InkSplatters
http://members.xoom.com/InkS/InkSplatters.htm
Associate Editor - The Writers' Pen
http://members.xoom.com/WritersPen/index.html
Freelance writer and Ascii Artist
http://members.xoom.com/ldb/ldbascii.htm
ODP Editor
http://dmoz.org/