ASCII input mode

GoAT implements a subset, and some extensions, of the ASCII diagram generation function of the browser-side Javascript in Markdeep.

If ASCII-mode is selected on the command line (the default), all characters that affect drawing lie within the ASCII set. Certain Unicode graphical characters e.g. MIDDLE DOT may however be useful, and in at least some on-screen fonts, conform to the constant pixel-dimension standard of the ASCII range.

CJK characters on the other hand are typically wider than 2:1. Non-standard width characters are not in general composable on the left-right axis within a plain-text drawing, because the remainder of the line of text to their right is pushed out of alignment with rows above and below.

Example Graphics

Here are some snippets of GoAT-formatted text and the SVG each can generate. The SVG you see below was linked to by inline Markdown image references (howto, spec) from GoAT's README.md, then finally rendered to HTML <img> elements by Github's Markdown processor

Trees -- mid-range color value

Setting a foreground color in the middle of the possible range of value or luminance is one way to work around a limitation of certain browsers e.g. Safari. Safari does not support inheritance of the color-scheme CSS property by goat's output <svg> element from within an enclosing <img> element such as are generated by Markdown.

Overlaps

           .-.           .-.           .-.           .-.           .-.           .-.
          |   |         |   |         |   |         |   |         |   |         |   |
       .---------.   .--+---+--.   .--+---+--.   .--|   |--.   .--+   +--.   .------|--.
      |           | |           | |   |   |   | |   |   |   | |           | |   |   |   |
       '---------'   '--+---+--'   '--+---+--'   '--|   |--'   '--+   +--'   '--|------'
          |   |         |   |         |   |         |   |         |   |         |   |
           '-'           '-'           '-'           '-'           '-'           '-'

---

Line Decorations

                ________                            o        *          *   .--------------.
   *---+--.    |        |     o   o      |         ^          \        /   |  .----------.  |
       |   |    '--*   -+-    |   |      v        /            \      /    | |  <------.  | |
       |    '----->       .---(---'  --->*<---   /      .+->*<--o----'     | |          | | |
   <--'  ^  ^             |   |                 |      | |  ^    \         |  '--------'  | |
          \/        *-----'   o     |<----->|   '-----'  |__|     v         '------------'  |
          /\                                                               *---------------'

---

Dot Grids

  o o o o o  * * * * *  * * o o *    o o o      * * *      o o o     · * · · ·     · · ·
  o o o o o  * * * * *  o o o o *   o o o o    * * * *    * o * *    · * * · ·    · · · ·
  o o o o o  * * * * *  o * o o o  o o o o o  * * * * *  o o o o o   · o · · o   · · * * ·
  o o o o o  * * * * *  o * o o o   o o o o    * * * *    o * o o    · · · · o    · · * ·
  o o o o o  * * * * *  * * * * o    o o o      * * *      o * o     · · · · ·     · · *

Note that '·' above is not ASCII, but rather Unicode, the MIDDLE DOT character, encoded with UTF-8.

"Complicated"

+-------------------+                           ^                      .---.
|      ‗A Box‗      |__.--.__    __.-->         |      .-.             |   |
|                   |        '--'               v     | * |<---        |   |
+-------------------+                                  '-'             |   |
                        `Round`                                    *---(-. |
  .-----------------.  .-------.    .----------.         .-------.     | | |
 |   Mixed Rounded  | |         |  / Diagonals  \        |   |   |     | | |
 | & Square Corners |  '--. .--'  /              \       |---+---|     '-)-'       .--------.
 '--+------------+-'  .--. |     '-------+--------'      |   |   |       |        / Search /
    |            |   |    | '---.        |               '-------'       |       '-+------'
    |<---------->|   |    |      |       v                Interior                 |     ^
    '           <---'      '----'   .-----------.              ---.     .---       v     |
 .------------------.  Diag line    | .-------. +---.              \   /           .     |
 |   if (a > b)     +---.      .--->| |       | |    |`Curved line` \ /           / \    |
 |   obj->fcn()     |    \    /     | '-------' |<--'                +           /   \   |
 '------------------'     '--'      '--+--------'      .--. .--.     |  .-.     +Done?+-'
    .---+-----.                        |   ^           |\ | | /|  .--+ |   |     \   /
    |   |     | Join        \|/        |   | `Curved`  | \| |/ | |    \    |      \ /
    |   |     +---->  o    --o--        '-'  Vertical  '--' '--'  '--  '--'        +  .---.
 <--+---+-----'       |     /|\                                                    |  | 3 |
                      v                             not:line    'quotes'        .-'   '---'
  .-.             .---+--------.            /            A || B   ·bold·       |        ^
 |   |           |   Not a dot  |      <---+---<--    A dash--is not a line    v        |
  '-'             '---------+--'          /           Nor/is this.            ---

---

"Complicated" redux, styled in motley

More examples