Explaining Code Using ASCII Art
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People tend to be visual: we use pictures to understand problems. Mainstream programming languages, on the other hand, operate in an almost completely different kind of abstract space, leaving a big gap between programs and pictures. This piece is about pictures drawn using a text character set and then embedded in source code. I love these! The other day I asked around on Twitter for more examples and the responses far exceeded expectations (thanks everyone!). There are a ton of great examples in the thread; here I’ve categorized a few of them. Click on images go to the repositories.
Data Structures
One of the most common kinds of ASCII art in code is illustrating the shape of a data structure.
The example I started with comes from LLVM:
The layout of a data structure in the Jikes RVM:
A tree rotate in Musl:
Double-ended queue from the Rust library:
Swift compiler internals:
Malloc header layout:
State Machines
JavaScript profiling:
RPCs in Cloud Spanner:
I/O stream states:
Logical Structure in the Problem Domain
Control flow in a JavaScript program being decompiled:
ECC internals:
Formatting numbers:
A quantum circuit:
Balancing memory management objectives in an OS kernel:
Subtyping relations (this is a very cool special case where the ASCII art is also code):
The format of a DBF file:
A lookup table for image processing:
Shape of a color function:
Structure of a URI:
A very quick tutorial on undo systems from emacs:
Geometry
Attitude control in the Apollo Guidance Computer (!!!):
Image tiling:
Boomerang trajectories in Nethack:
Rendering CSS borders:
Quadtrees:
Speed control in a milling machine:
Scrolling web pages:
I hope you enjoyed these as much as I did!
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