Re: Ascii-Art Secrets #4

Hi Colin,

nice to see someone taking up that project.

Some comments:

On Sat, 22 Dec 2001, CJRandall wrote:
[...]
> This FAQ is regularly posted to news:alt.ascii-art and
> news:alt.ascii-art.animation. On the Web, the FAQ and other useful
> documents can be found in the ASCII art Documentation Archive (ADA), at
> the following locations:
> *   http://voices.vossnet.co.uk/a/atkins/ada/ (UK)
> *   http://website.lineone.net/~martin.atkins/ada/ (UK)
> *   http://martweb.hypermart.net/ada/ (Seattle, USA)
> [??? any more locations? I think I've missed a couple]

I'd leave out the last one (pop-ups galore, NS 4 goes down too).
Instead we could do with another US mirror. Anyone?

Add the main one:

http://www.sci.fi/~iltzu/ascii/ada/

and VK's

http://www.ludd.luth.se/~vk/q/ada/


4. [...]
>     *   ASCII art animated using JavaScript. This relies not only on the
>         newsreader being able to display HTML, but also being able to
>         run JavaScript. Put it on a Web page instead, and post the
>         address to news:alt.ascii-art.animation.

We should add Java here since JavE will probably be used much more than
the `old' Javascript player.

[...]
> 6.  How do I draw my own ASCII art?
> -----------------------------------
>     The most common question asked on this subject is `do you use a
>     special program to make your pictures?'. The answer is usually no.
>     You can create ASCII art in any text editor, such as SimpleText or
>     BBEdit in MacOS, Notepad in Windows, nedit, vi, vim, or pico in
>     Unix, BEd or AZ in AmigaOS, edit in DOS, or any of the various Emacs
>     editors.

Here should be one sentence about JavE (e.g. written in Java, many extra
ASCII features included,...)

[...]
>     Even so, there are a few characters to watch out for:
>     # hash/pound -- a hash symbol on most computers, a pound
>         (currency) symbol on some British ones

Is that correct? I mean the `some British ones'? Because if that is so
then this should not be on top of this list because it refers to only a
minor `British' problem :) whereas the ~ for example will be `misplaced'
more often.

[...]
>     Finally, do not use any control codes, non-ASCII characters, or
>     word-processor-type formatting in your pictures. Not only are these

Maybe TABs should be mentioned here (explicitely, again?).

[...]
> 8.  I like that ASCII picture -- can I copy it for myself?
> ----------------------------------------------------------
>     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,
[...]

Exception to what `rule'? I'd like to have a clearer statement here,
like `Often you may copy and use ASCII art, though' or something like
that (but nicer/better).

> 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/.

Is someone willing to check the links in this document. I guess
many of them will be dead, like the above. :(

And again: JavE should be mentioned here (maybe in the Figlet section
too). There have been also some other conversion codes mentioned
recently. Anyone remembers where those are available?

[...]
> 12. Where do I find more ASCII art pictures and information?
> ------------------------------------------------------------
[...]
> 
>     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.

That one's not dead but hasn't seen an update for more than a year - it 
hosts many dead links now. :(

Personally I'd recommend the following first:

>     
>     The DMOZ Open Directory Project also has an extensive catalogue of
>     ASCII art sites -- http://dmoz.org/Arts/ASCII/.

[...]
> Text-mode Quake -- http://webpages.mr.net/bobz/ttyquake/
>     `The ASCII artists' in Wired magazine --
>     http://www.wired.com/news/news/wiredview/story/6346.html.
> 
> analia and other animation software -- [???]

If there is no real maintainer for the FAQ then there shouldn't be
too many links in it. Only the very important ones. Dead links
are worse then no links in a FAQ.

[...]
> =======================================================================
> [Subject:] ObAscii ?
[...]

The ObAscii part looks nice. Maybe put the explanation before the
`first ever' to minimise confusion.

Hopefully more people will comment or correct this text because that's
how a FAQ should be created and kept up to date. Anyway, thank
you Colin, for starting this!


:)
Andreas

________________________________________________ http://www.ascii-art.de

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