ASCII Diagram, offline, Linux, FLOSS

Hi,

I'm looking for a soft to create ASCII diagram like (or better) https://asciiflow.com/

ideally:

FLOSS
for linux
offline
no javascript.

I've found a candidate ascii-draw and it's write in Python ❤️ 🐍, but it's only available as flatpack.. :/

15 comments

If flatpak is not an option, then you need to specify what packaging platforms are applicable.
- Thanks @[email protected] , "Packaging" is not mandatory when creating a software, like it's was written It could run as .py trough python executable. but here it seem not
  Otherwise I'm ok with .appimage format/packing.
  
  It's up to the distro maintainers to package it for the distros. Not the software developer. I see it's available in the AUR, so it's not only available as a flatpak. So ascii.-draw does fit your criteria.
  You can also build it yourself if you know how (they list the use of gnome-builder for this).

The AUR PKGBUILD shows a pretty simple recipe:

 undefined

    
build() {
  arch-meson "${pkgname}-${pkgver//+/-}" build
  meson compile -C build
}

package() {
  meson install -C build --destdir "${pkgdir}"
  # permission fix
  chmod 755 "${pkgdir}/usr/bin/ascii-draw"
}

I've been seeing arch-meson often used, but haven't explored what it does. Some day...

Though it's way more fun to use text specification, like the one referenced by @[email protected]

arch-meson is a small wrapper script for meson:

 undefined

    
$ cat /usr/bin/arch-meson
#!/bin/bash -ex
# Highly opinionated wrapper for Arch Linux packaging

exec meson setup \
  --prefix        /usr \
  --libexecdir    lib \
  --sbindir       bin \
  --buildtype     plain \
  --auto-features enabled \
  --wrap-mode     nodownload \
  -D              b_pie=true \
  -D              python.bytecompile=1 \
  "$@"

I'm not sure why you wouldn't want the ASCII-Draw flatpak, but that's not the only way to get it:
there's a Snap
it can be installed from source
there's also an AUR package
But maybe you're not on Arch, don't like Snaps (can't blame anyone for that) and don't want to install from source (same)? What type of package are you looking for? Only native package? For which distro?
- Ideally running the .py python foobar.py will be ideal, otherwise an .appimage
  I think I will have to build it my self (the .appimage ) :)

cant you compile it also im sure also in the AUR if ur on a arch based distro
- I'm not, I'm on MX Linux with SysVinit.

I don't have an answer for you, I'd never heard of ASCIIFlow, but holy shit that takes me back to an oooold piece of DOS software called FormTool. Used to make dungeon maps and character sheets and such with it back in the early 90s. Good times.

You might be interested in Emacs, it has (among many other things) artist-mode where you can draw with your cursor and obtain good ASCII art

This sent me down a rabbit hole since it's something I've half-considering for a while. I prefer text configuration rather than GUI so I ended up installing graph-easy on my debian laptop:
sudo apt install libgraph-easy-perl
and made a first attempt to diagram the power setup in my campervan
It's a perl module but the graph-easy wrapper makes it behave like any other CLI tool. cat or echo the config text to the wrapper and the graph pops out on STDOUT
- Thanks @[email protected] But graph-easy is text to graph. and I'm looking to draw ! so draw to ~graph(ASCII) but it's a nice program too.

Any reason for avoiding flatpak?
- I like light system and moreover I like the simplicity of .appimage
  Unlike some systems such as Snap and Flatpak, AppImages work with very little support from the base distribution.
  To run the app, an user simply needs to run this file — there’s no intermediate installation step.
  source: https://www.booleanworld.com/creating-linux-apps-run-anywhere-appimage/

15 comments