As some may know, i've been working on an ANSI editor called PabloDraw http://pablodraw.webjump.com (plug). I've been told that there are WAY too many features, and they are mostly unnecessary.
ASCII art is really quite simple and doesn't require much in the way of frills. A couple of points:
What about features like Autosave, so you don't lose your work, or a file history of previously saved/loaded files so you can access frequently used files quicker.. or maybe line/circle/box drawing so you can make basic outlines of your pic?
Since I've become sort of an adf/xbin afficianado, I think support for these formats is important.
pablodraw already has a feature where you can customize the function key sets.
haquisaq: you know, you CAN change the default starting character set in PabloDraw by changing the line: 'STARTUP current_charset' to a different letter. (like 'F' to change it to alt-f6)
Autosave is a feature which definately needs to be implemented.. We all must have lost that drawing over the years where the computer has timely reset itself or you just forget to save, etc..
haquisaq:
eto - i'd still be hitting the damn f6, though. give me two years and i'll finally kick the habit =)
I don't really think that ansi and ascii artists need another drawing utility. Sure, some of the things that have been mentioned would be nice, but people have been getting along with ACiDdraw for years now. Switching drawing programs typically requires a learning curve, and more often than not, only results in frustration. I've never tried using Pablodraw, but unless it has some revolutionary features that are sorely lacking from ACiDdraw, I don't see how it'll be successful.
Well, for instance, things that make it EASIER to work. Like the ability to work in a multitude of formats, and save your work in different mediums (ans,avt,acg,crn,tg,rg,mirc,exe,bmp,pas,c,asm,etc); the ability to draw an 'outline' of your picture better with line/circle/box drawing; Multiple or single backups to keep earlier versions of your image; Autosave features incase your computer crashes on you and you havn't saved for HOURS (and with windows, this helps); Being able to customize ANYTHING - even down to the keystrokes used for every command; drawing ANSI lines; Having MCI codes built-in if your doing an ansi for a BBS or are a sysop; A better file/load selection screen; Having a history list of recently loaded/saved files; Ability to make HUGE ansis; Transparent foreground/background colours that don't overwrite the current colour to fill in character detail; Moveable and fixed ruler modes; VESA (high-resolution) text modes; Block Rotation; Configurable flashing cursor so you can always know where the cursor is; Variable canvas width; Search & replace; Ability to specify defaults when loading/saving; Configurable tab stops; Text formatting.... and, believe it or not, there's more.
Pariah, I believe he answered your question! heh :)
It's already released (beta), and has been for a while. you can get it at artpacks.acid.org
well. pablodraw sounds like it'll rock. :) can't wait to see it.
oh btw.. one feature I always wanted in an editor was something like alt-up/down that would scroll the image up or down, but the cursor would stay in the same place on the screen. A lot of times I want to scroll an image like you'd see it in a viewer, but I don't want to have to move the cursor to the top or bottom of the sreen first to do it, and I couldn't use pgup/dn for that either.
I don't doubt the number of features that Pablodraw has or will have in future versions. Given the time ACiDDraw has been around and the tendency for artists to get set in their ways, however, I think it's unrealistic to expect the majority of the scene to switch drawing utilities. The same would apply to any other drawing program, even an update of the widely circulated version of ACiDdraw.
What about new artists, that aren't necessarily "set in their ways" yet? (:
In responce to Eto's post about stuff you can't do in acid draw, for the flashing cursor, hit alt+o for the options screen and go down and toggle the "flashing cursor option." Do the same for variable cavnas width. as for "Transparent foreground/background colours that don't overwrite the current colour to fill in character detail" i'm not sure what you mean by that, but maybe you would be aided by doing a "fill" and then selecting "attributes." But in principle, i agree that there are still some nifty features that are left out of aciddraw.
Yes, aciddraw can do a flashing cursor, but i found it annoying and unconfigurable.
Having more features is better in my opinion, because if even ONE person makes use of that feature, then it has been worth it. BUT, that may not be the case.
What I wanted to get across in this discussion is, what type of features/functionality would an ANSI/ASCII artist need, or would like to see in a text-based editor?
By Necromancer on Tuesday, January 5, 1999 - 02:49 pm:
1. Line deletion and insertion
2. Cut and paste features (w/mouse support)
3. Use of F1-F12 keys for extended ascii chars
4. Color support
That's pretty much all an ASCII artist needs in the way of features, believe it or not. Almost every single ascii I've done in my long history has been done in either edit.com(qbasic.exe in the older days) or in vi/pico.
- Necromancer
By Eto on Tuesday, January 5, 1999 - 10:58 pm:
.. perhaps also being able to make your own character sets, configuring the keyboard to your liking, etc?
By God among Lice on Wednesday, January 6, 1999 - 12:07 am:
Also, customizable Function key sets, like choosing which characters go in ctrl-F1 for example, would be especially important if you allow the adf/xbin formats which allow custom character sets.
By Haquisaq on Wednesday, January 6, 1999 - 01:48 am:
however, i doubt that very many people will make good use of it, because we're all too used to the "standard" key configuration of the other programs.
i mean, i've configged my pablodraw to assign the ansi block characters to the default character set when it loads up and i still find myself hitting alt-f6 =)
i suppose it'd be a lot more useful for ascii artists, though.
By Eto on Wednesday, January 6, 1999 - 08:09 am:
And, I agree with having xbin/adf, Even though it's not used by everyone. It is a new 'format' of drawing that needs more support by ansi editors.
By Dangermouse on Wednesday, January 6, 1999 - 01:50 pm:
By Quip on Thursday, January 7, 1999 - 12:43 am:
Whenever I draw ascii (which is seldom, but still), I always use my own defined character set for the outline and then I edit it to make it look better..
so screw you, hippie.
By Haquisaq on Friday, January 8, 1999 - 12:55 am:
quip - i'd make my own character sets for ascii too, but 1) i'm too lazy, 2) i don't draw too much ascii anymore, and 3) i'm too lazy.
and why the hell does everyone keep calling me a hippie?&^%$@
By Pariah on Wednesday, January 20, 1999 - 05:34 pm:
As far as adf and xbin artists go, while I don't know much about either medium, I'm sure that they could benefit from a drawing program fit exclusively for them. There's much more of a need in that case than there is with ansi and ascii artists.
By Eto on Thursday, January 21, 1999 - 07:49 am:
ALL of those features aren't in AcidDraw.
(and, imho, XBIN/ADF is just ANSI++, so having an exclusive editor doesn't matter at all, there's just MORE to do with XBIN/ADF)
Cheerio!
By Dangermouse on Thursday, January 21, 1999 - 01:55 pm:
Eto, There sure are some impressive features in Pablodraw. When is it due for release?
By Eto on Friday, January 22, 1999 - 09:22 am:
pabp0971.zip is the 32-bit version
pab0971.zip is the 16-bit version.
release 0.98 will have the VESA text modes, XBIN/ADF/IDF support, and a few more things.. which is due in a month or so... also, the 16-bit version will be dropped, and available on demand only.
bah.. i REALLY didn't want this discussion to just be about pablodraw. ohwell.
By God among Lice on Friday, January 22, 1999 - 06:07 pm:
By God among Lice on Friday, January 22, 1999 - 06:12 pm:
Waddya say? doable?
By Pariah on Friday, January 22, 1999 - 06:17 pm:
By Eto on Monday, January 25, 1999 - 12:21 pm:
By Username on Tuesday, January 26, 1999 - 11:59 am:
raberts
By Eto on Tuesday, January 26, 1999 - 01:24 pm:
Aciddraw can also only do 80, or 160 canvas widths. PabloDraw can do (in 0.971) a width from 1 to 10000 (which promotes making huge-arse ansis!)
Also, the transparent colours mean that you can change the characters without changing the foreground/background colour on the canvas.
(: