Welcome letter_ Thanks , Questions and a xmas greeting

			Hello,
............................................
a couple of weeks ago I received the groups welcome letter,
sent by Veronica. I'd like to thank you and add a few Questions.

* Was it a NONO to ask for Halloween ASCIIs? By then I had found
 some Collections on the Web but not much Holiday stuff so far.

>The first thing you should do, if you haven't already, 
>is to read the "FAQ".

Well though I have done so, I guess I need to read some parts over and
over. Takes time to get into my Head :-) Will you Forgive me?

>    http://www.surfplaza.com/figlet/
>    http://www-lil.univ-littoral.fr/~jobard/PictextService/

Figlet is a handy tool, very nice if you long for your name in ASCII.
But the converter is, well not the real thing. 

*Is "PictextService" really the best of them all? 
*Are there any good converters at all (Share-freeware downloads)?

>A method that usually gives better results is "The Plastic Bag
>Method". It sounds like a "crayon on the screen" joke, but it
>actually works.

I will try that for sure, when I start making my first bigger ascii's.
Seems like a better way than using the converter given above.

>Some pictures don't have initials on them and it's not obvious who
>made them. In that case you should add "Artist Unknown" to the
>picture to point out that you do not claim to have made it yourself.

*How about the smallish ones, like the tiny star below?
*Some small Images seem familiar, and often used.
*Should I always try to contact the creator?

Thanks for reading and all your patience with newbies.

BTW:
Here's my very first. Simple but not stolen; I hope...:-}

*  .  o    *
o *  ._/\_ .             .     
   . \    /  *    o   *      o *
. * ./_  _\.  Merry Christmas, Sylvia
*  o   \/  . *    o *  .* o
    *          *

Sylvia Berger wrote:
> 
>                         Hello,
> ............................................
> a couple of weeks ago I received the groups welcome letter,
> sent by Veronica. I'd like to thank you and add a few Questions.
> 

Not "the group's" letter, just mine.   :)

> * Was it a NONO to ask for Halloween ASCIIs? By then I had found
>  some Collections on the Web but not much Holiday stuff so far.
> 

No, of course not. But if you're asking for something that already
exists it's more efficient for you to look on the web than to wait for
somebody to maybe make something for you...

> >The first thing you should do, if you haven't already,
> >is to read the "FAQ".
> 
> Well though I have done so, I guess I need to read some parts over and
> over. Takes time to get into my Head :-) Will you Forgive me?
> 

:)

> >    http://www.surfplaza.com/figlet/
> >    http://www-lil.univ-littoral.fr/~jobard/PictextService/
> 
> Figlet is a handy tool, very nice if you long for your name in ASCII.
> But the converter is, well not the real thing.
> 

I think it's quite good enough for maybe 95% of the "my name in ascii"
requests (it certainly is good enough for 95% of my personal ascii font
needs).

> *Is "PictextService" really the best of them all?
> *Are there any good converters at all (Share-freeware downloads)?
> 

I don't know. I usually use the "surfplaza" one myself...

> >A method that usually gives better results is "The Plastic Bag
> >Method". It sounds like a "crayon on the screen" joke, but it
> >actually works.
> 
> I will try that for sure, when I start making my first bigger ascii's.
> Seems like a better way than using the converter given above.
> 

That's how I made the falling cat (See the thread with the subject
"Ooops!").

http://www.ludd.luth.se/~vk/pics/temp/new/cats/HouseCat_Falling-SerialShots.jpg

> >Some pictures don't have initials on them and it's not obvious who
> >made them. In that case you should add "Artist Unknown" to the
> >picture to point out that you do not claim to have made it yourself.
> 
> *How about the smallish ones, like the tiny star below?

No, you have to use _some_ common sense too... Consider the probability
of two people coming up with exactly the same tiny picture... That star
has probably been invented by a thousand other people too (including
me).  :)

> *Some small Images seem familiar, and often used.
> *Should I always try to contact the creator?
> 
> Thanks for reading and all your patience with newbies.
> 

:)

> BTW:
> Here's my very first. Simple but not stolen; I hope...:-}
> 
> *  .  o    *
> o *  ._/\_ .             .
>    . \    /  *    o   *      o *
> . * ./_  _\.  Merry Christmas, Sylvia
> *  o   \/  . *    o *  .* o
>     *          *

Doesn't look stolen to me, and you shouldn't feel insulted if somebody
else signs their name to it too.  :)


-- 
    (,         http://www.ludd.luth.se/~vk/cgi/asciichat/
    /|__--__                       .                        __--__
    |\ '__                        /|\                        _{ _ 
    `.' / `.,_ _________           |           _________ _,.' (/ `.
    /  ||``._.'             ASCII ART CHAT!             `---'|:||,/
  .'   /|                                                   /|:| \
.'    /\ \         __   __                _                 `/|'\'
 ` `,/ /`,\        \ \ / /__ _ _ ___ _ _ (_)__ __ _         /,'\ \
   .'.'  /|         \ V / -_) '_/ _ \ ' \| / _/ _` |        |\  `.`.
 ,' /   / |          \_/\___|_| \___/_||_|_\__\__,_|        | \   \ `,
- `- -- `-'- -ejm-------------------------------------VK-- -`-' -- -' -

On Wed, 22 Dec 1999 13:41:10 +0100, Veronica Karlsson (aci...@earthling.net) wrote:
: Sylvia Berger wrote:
: > Figlet is a handy tool, very nice if you long for your name in ASCII.
: > But the converter is, well not the real thing.

: I think it's quite good enough for maybe 95% of the "my name in ascii"
: requests (it certainly is good enough for 95% of my personal ascii font
: needs).

Am I correct in assuming that she was referring to picture-to-ascii
converters on that second line? I've always though that it should be
possible to improve those a lot by considering also neighboring pixels
when deciding which character to pick, but the problem then becomes
finding a compact and manageable representation for the decision tree.


 [four-line Star of David]
: No, you have to use _some_ common sense too... Consider the probability
: of two people coming up with exactly the same tiny picture... That star
: has probably been invented by a thousand other people too (including
: me).  :)

Indeed you have. For example, you've accidentally created it as part of
this impossible tribar (look at the hole in the middle):
           ____
          /\   \
         /  \___\
        _\  / __/_
       /\ \/_/\   \
      /  \__/  \___\
     _\  /  \  / __/_
    /\ \/___/\/_/\   \
   /  \___\    /  \___\
  _\  /   /_  _\__/ __/_
 /\ \/___/  \/\   \/\   \
/  \___\ \___\ \___\ \___\
\  /   / /   / /   / /   /
 \/___/\/___/\/___/\/___/  Veronica Karlsson

Which, incidentally, I'd independently drawn an exact duplicate of:
            ____
           /\   \
          /  \___\
         _\  / __/_
        /\ \/_/\   \
       /  \__/  \___\
      _\  /  \  / __/_
     /\ \/___/\/_/\   \
    /  \___\    /  \___\
   _\  /   /_  _\__/ __/_
  /\ \/___/  \/\   \/\   \
 /  \___\ \___\ \___\ \___\
 \  /   / /   / /   / /itz/
  \/___/\/___/\/___/\/___/

Yup, identical except for the signatures. That's probably the largest
picture I've ever seen duplicated like this, but it's not really all
that surprising - that's the only sensible way to draw it.

Incidentally, while looking through Deja for these I found some
other tribars you'd drawn before, and was inspired to create these
new (I think) geometric ascii tiling patterns:

\ \ \/ / /
_\_\/ / /_
____\/_/__
____/\ \__
 / /\ \ \ 
/ / /\ \ \
 / /__\_\/
/_/______\
\ \______/
 \ \  / /\

\ \:\/ /Z/
_\_\/ /Z/_
::::\/Z/::
ZZZZ/\:\ZZ
 / /\ \:\ 
/ /Z/\ \:\
 /Z/__\_\/
/Z/::::::\
\:\ZZZZZZ/
 \:\  / /\

The latter one looks oddly familiar, as if I'd seen it somewhere
before, but I can't quite place it.

-- 
Ilmari Karonen - http://www.sci.fi/~iltzu/
"I've never had the nerve to phone up a stranger and say 'Excuse me, but did
you throw a dead bat at Ozzy?'"                       -- Nathan Tenny in AFU