Yes, it's really nice and simple - great that you can just cut and paste the result into an e-mail too!

Wow thanks for that, ideally I'd like one without all that extra stuff and just the diagrams from asciiflow.. but that's just being pedantic :)

Hints about the active tool appear at the bottom right; apparently the arrow tool is used for selecting a region so you can copy it to the clipboard.

But but but... what about python? http://xkcd.com/353/

Awesome! Bookmarked for future usage.

Oh wow, nice.

Just what I needed to make a directory tree example for a readme.txt

A quick google shows someone wrote a plugin called drawit.vim. Personally, I think this is one case where I'd rather use the mouse.

I think they mean that HN's core principles include not using IE.

I'm really enjoying this, the utter simplicity of it has a certain appeal. I would really like the ability to add columns / rows at the cursor position, though. Moving things around / feature heaven / hell would be fun, but that I think would be a net improvement without breaking the simplicity at all.

It's a pity that the GraphViz family of automatic graph drawing tools don't support ASCII:

  (user@air) /Users/user $ dot -Tascii

  Format: "ascii" not recognized. Use one of: bmp
  cgimage cmap cmapx cmapx_np dot eps exr fig
  gd gd2 gif gv imap imap_np ismap jp2 jpe jpeg
  jpg pct pdf pict plain plain-ext png ps ps2 psd
  sgi svg svgz tga tif tiff tk vml vmlz vrml wbmp
  x11 xdot xlib canon

There is a similar Java application also: http://ditaa.sourceforge.net/ But it works in a bit different way: converts such ASCII diagrams into bitmap graphics.

I was thinking the same thing

Just needed this the other day and found this application: http://www.jave.de/ More features, but also feels more complex.

Screenshot: http://www.jave.de/screenshots/60rc2_screenshot.png

What about ASCIIO? It's great because it allows you to move and connect the blocks after you created them. It's great to document source code.

http://search.cpan.org/dist/App-Asciio/lib/App/Asciio.pm

Looks like they're just honoring the age-old custom of adopting the idea to a new platform.

textfiles.com would have quite a lot of ascii art from back then. Memories :)

Honestly? This is the first online wireframing tool that I've been able to use and instantly display what I want.

Great work!

Reminds me of TheDraw from back in the day:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheDraw

Very nice website!

I tried to do the same with a 28x4 canvas with unicode for twitter, but client and host unicode rendering differences turn it into an unintelligible mess most of the time (www.draw140.com)

Cool! This is something I wanted to have and had started making for myself. Mine is much less useful than asciiflow but the thing I like most about it is that it allows writing and drawing more in the way I use my notebook. It's easy to write little blocks of text that aren't aligned along the left margin.

Feature request: In text mode, assign <enter> to move the cursor down a line and to the column that text entry began.

Here's my prototype: http://norstrulde.org/tty/tty.html

This is very cool. And you can quickly create mockups for roguelike levels.

                                     +-------+     +------------+                                   
            +---------------+        |       |     |     >      |     -4/124                        
            |               |        ||   <  | +---+%%%         |     15/15                         
            |   >   =       |        |       | |   |%     \     |                                   
            |               +--------+   %   | |   |     !!     |                                   
            |         %     |        |       | |   |            |      +----+                       
            |     %         |        |       | |   |            |      |%   |                       
            +---------------+        |  %%   +-+   +-----+------+      |    |                       
                                     |       |           |             |   >|                       
                                     |       |           |             |"   |                       
                                     |   %   |           |             +-+--+                       
                                     +----+--+           +---------+     |                          
                      +---------+         |                        |     |                          
                      |((       |         |    +------------+  +---+-----+--+                       
                      | ( O     |         |    |~~ P        |  |            |                       
                      |  @K  %  |         |    |~~~~     <  +--+      %   / |                       
                      |   %  Y  |         |    |~~~         |  +------------+                       
                      |   %   Y |         |    |            |                                       
                      |    c    Y---------+----+      ]     |   Slow Poisoned                       
                      |         |              |            +                                       
                      +---------+              |            |                                       
                                               |   <        |                                       
                                               +------------+          D:24                         
                You teleport.                                                                       
                The centaur shoots an arrow of flame. The arrow hits you.                           
                You die...                                                                          
                Xom says:"I guess I need a new plaything now."

This is one of the best things I've seen all week. I hate traditional flowcharting tools, they're wonky and a pain when you have to convert them to anything else. ASCII is the portable data format basically.