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stathissideris
ditaa
Java2016–2023
stathissideris / ditaa

ditaa

ditaa is a small command-line utility that can convert diagrams drawn using ascii art ('drawings' that contain characters that resemble lines like | / - ), into proper bitmap graphics.

6Distinct people
7Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
1KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

ditaa is a small command-line utility that can convert diagrams drawn using ascii art ('drawings' that contain characters that resemble lines like | / - ), into proper bitmap graphics.

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use has been verified yet.

What people are saying

No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year7 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2016-02-15 19:11:01 UTC to 2023-08-08 13:55:22 UTC.

0122016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 1 submissions, 1 comments20162017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 1 submissions, 1 comments20192020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2023

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20162016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC211
20172017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20182018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20192019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC211
20202020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101

What Hacker News says

7 sources
I really liked the simplicity of the older asciiflow. So much so that I keep a bookmark to the wayback machine for it [1] Not too long ago I had a project that was implemented as a complex state machine where the requirements kept changing, and keeping the documentation as an ASCII diagram in the source code had a couple of benefits: * It meant that the documentation could be updated when the code had to be changed * I didn't have to hunt for the diagrams on the project wiki when I made these changes. * The diagram was kept in version control with the rest of the code. Each commit/branch had a diagram that accurately reflected its state. I could then use Ditaa to convert the diagram to a more appropriate format when updating the project's wiki or emailing the customer [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20130813045206/http://www.asciif... [2]
Read the rest
In Explaining Code Using ASCII Art
It is now on GitHub: https://github.com/stathissideris/ditaa I've recently used this for a diagram of a FSM in software I'm developing at work. I drew the diagrams on http://www.asciidraw.com. The diagram ends up as a comment in my source code. This has a couple of benefits: It is easy to keep up to date (I change it if I change the code), and it is under version control (so if I check out a particular branch, I don't have to struggle to find the relevant diagram). It is also not significantly more difficult to do than, say, Visio for a simple diagram like this. I then used Ditaa to convert the diagram to an image file for more official documentation, like emails to customers etc. emacs also has a mode for drawing ASCII diagrams, but I'm on Windows, so I can't comment about it. (http://asciiflow.com/ seems like a nice alternative to ascii
Read the rest
draw.com, but asciidraw is the one I started out with) edit: there is also http://shaky.github.bushong.net/ that I use to entertain people who's seen the ditaa generated diagram.
In Ditaa: Diagrams Through ASCII Art

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