ASCII Containers

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10 comments, last by Programmer One 14 years, 11 months ago
I'm not a very creative guy, but when I write documentation I like to put the main headers in nice looking boxes. eg. ==================== = Useful Variables = ==================== Does anyone know of a place that has some pre-made ones? I've seen some really nice, faux-3D containers.
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Why? It's only going to clutter your code in a way that doesn't add any usefulness. Even the boxes are totally useless and make files needlessly large(And thus, require more time to scroll through).

Sorry, can't help.

Not code (or comments) persay, but read-me files. I don't mind trading off a little size for user experience.
Simplicity often works best if user experience is your concern. Any "containers" tend to look cluttered and most likely detract more from readability than they add to it. You could look at readme.txt files for examples on formatting. One example that I think works particularly well is to underline first level headings with lines of '=' and second level headings with lines of '-'.

Like so:

Lorem Ipsum===========Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque vel porttitor dui. Vivamus vitae diam sed nibh eleifend vehicula vel sit amet nisi. Etiam sed dolor sem. Cras ut purus risus, adipiscing malesuada quam. In leo justo, condimentum id faucibus a, blandit in orci.Aliquam erat volutpat---------------------Etiam dignissim hendrerit malesuada. Pellentesque suscipit justo nec nunc adipiscing pulvinar. Praesent non sem scelerisque diam mattis viverra at nec nunc. Etiam condimentum, magna pulvinar lobortis pretium, libero ante aliquam tortor, a aliquam nisl eros non lacus.etc...


[Edit] Duh... Added linebreaks.
ascii art

This one looks quite nice:

 │·──────────────────────────·─·─[· GREETiNGS ·]─·─·────────────────────────·│ │·                                                                         ·│ │|  Personal greets:                                                       |│ ││                                                                         ││ ││           StarGrove, Dracosis, Erl–King, Youngblood, Dark Star          ││ ││           ShortCCT, Homey Da Clown, Tsunami, and Dr. Anarchy.           ││ ││                                                                         ││ │|  Group greets:                                                          |│ ││                                                                         ││ ││       Razor, Genesis, TDU–JAM, DOD, PCY, RiSC, ZillionZ and all those   ││ ││       others just having fun.  Special whazup to ADR and that kewl new  ││ │|       group Vendetta and their prez Lone Dragon!                        |│ ··                                                                         ·· │·───────────────────────────·─·─[· NOTiCE ·]─·─·──────────────────────────·│ │·                                                                         ·│ │|  To become a member of this distributing group, talk to _ReDDoG_ in     |│ ││  #fate for an application. We are only accepting few, and only the most ││ ││  dedicated, fast couriers across the world. 4+ node boards need only    ││ ││  apply for distros. fATE has great expectations to become the best that ││ ││  we can be. If you THINK you're a member, but you are not in the nfo,   ││ ││  too bad. You're a slacker, and we dont take you fucking wackers. So,   ││ ││  if you're not in the nfo, you're not in the group. This includes trial ││ ││  members, so stop saying you're in the group. Your name's not above,    ││ ││  than you're not fATE. If you want something SPREAD, give it to a fATE  ││ ││  member....                                                             |│ ··                                                                         ·· │·─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────·│             ··─·───·──────««<─·1995·fATE·1995·─>»»───────·───·─··              ·─·───·──────««<─· 27 July 1995 ·─>»»───────·───·─··


@lol
[size="2"]I like the Walrus best.
Can't help you with header boxes (lies, see below), and I'm actually with the "just underline it / just make a PDF" crowd, but if you want your header to be fancy, you could try one of the many ascii fonts. Here's a useful generator.

Actually, here's a program that draws various fancy ascii boxes around blocks of text. Check their examples page if you just wanna "borrow" a pre-made one without installing the program.

Quote:Original post by owl
ascii art

Oh god, some of those must've taken months to create, if not years.
Point taken - I've probably been idolizing too many game mod readmes and too few game readmes.
Quote:Original post by lightbringer
Oh god, some of those must've taken months to create, if not years.


I'm pretty sure they can be generated by a computer program.

<hr />
Sander Marechal<small>[Lone Wolves][Hearts for GNOME][E-mail][Forum FAQ]</small>

I would recommend placing your documentation in an ASCII autostereogram. It's fun for the whole family!
Quote:Original post by Sander
Quote:Original post by lightbringer
Oh god, some of those must've taken months to create, if not years.


I'm pretty sure they can be generated by a computer program.


Let me tell you a story:

Once upon a time, in a land far far away, there was a bunch of kids with really powerless computers (compared to those we use today), whom called themselves 'Teh Scene'. In that time, the Internet wasn't accesible to anyone as it is today, so they had to comunicate through the thelephone line using a modem directly to each other's computers ONE AT A TIME! At that point in time Computer graphics were restricted to a maximum of 320x200 and that resolution was unthinkable to be used when connecting through a modem, so all they had was ascii text mode to decorate their Bulletin Board Systems (which were like a website but in text mode)...

I've seen people copying a photo to ANSI by hand! Lot's of times. There is people who has a natural gift to perform such things.
[size="2"]I like the Walrus best.

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