When you are bored, try ASCII Pictures

I don’t know who invented the idea of ASCII pictures, but that guy must be bored enough to come up with this idea play with ASCII codes. But I have to admit, ASCII pictures are impressive and cool, or put in another way

   ______   ____     ____     __
  / ____/  / __ \   / __ \   / /
 / /      / / / /  / / / /  / /
/ /___   / /_/ /  / /_/ /  / /___
\____/   \____/   \____/  /_____/

The first kind of ASCII of pictures are produced by hand, maybe by a group of super smart programmers. Some programmers put the ASCII pictures as the header of the code. There exists a mysterious superstition that these pictures can make program bug-free. Here are some examples taken from Github.

/******************************************************
 *                       _oo0oo_                      *
 *                      o8888888o                     * 
 *                      88" . "88                     *
 *                      (| -_- |)                     *
 *                      0\  =  /0                     * 
 *                    ___/`---'\___                   *
 *                  .' \\|     |// '.                 *
 *                 / \\|||  :  |||// \                *
 *                / _||||| -:- |||||- \               *
 *               |   | \\\  -  /// |   |              *
 *               | \_|  ''\---/''  |_/ |              *
 *               \  .-\__  '-'  ___/-. /              *
 *             ___'. .'  /--.--\  `. .'___            *
 *          ."" '<  `.___\_<|>_/___.' >' "".          *
 *         | | :  `- \`.;`\ _ /`;.`/ - ` : | |        *
 *         \  \ `_.   \_ __\ /__ _/   .-` /  /        *
 *     =====`-.____`.___ \_____/___.-`___.-'=====     *
 *                       `=---='                      *
 *                                                    *
 *                                                    *
 *     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~    *
 *     May the code is away from bug with the bless   *
 *                   of the buddhas                   *
 *                                                    * 
 *                                                    * 
 ******************************************************/

/**
*　　　　　　　　┏┓　　　┏┓+ +
*　　　　　　　┏┛┻━━━┛┻┓ + +
*　　　　　　　┃　　　　　　　┃ 　
*　　　　　　　┃　　　━　　　┃ ++ + + +
*　　　　　　 ████━████ ┃+
*　　　　　　　┃　　　　　　　┃ +
*　　　　　　　┃　　　┻　　　┃
*　　　　　　　┃　　　　　　　┃ + +
*　　　　　　　┗━┓　　　┏━┛
*　　　　　　　　　┃　　　┃　　　　　　　　　　　
*　　　　　　　　　┃　　　┃ + + + +
*　　　　　　　　　┃　　　┃　　　　Code is far away from bug with the animal protecting　　　　　　　
*　　　　　　　　　┃　　　┃ + 　　　　
*　　　　　　　　　┃　　　┃
*　　　　　　　　　┃　　　┃　　+　　　　　　　　　
*　　　　　　　　　┃　 　　┗━━━┓ + +
*　　　　　　　　　┃ 　　　　　　　┣┓
*　　　　　　　　　┃ 　　　　　　　┏┛
*　　　　　　　　　┗┓┓┏━┳┓┏┛ + + + +
*　　　　　　　　　　┃┫┫　┃┫┫
*　　　　　　　　　　┗┻┛　┗┻┛+ + + +
*/

You can have a try if you want, just make sure that your peers or boss also like it.

The second type of the ASCII picutures are actually fancy way to write characters. Now we have plenty of tools to do the conversion. Sublime 3 has a well-defined package ASCII Decorator that does the job for you. If you type A B C, then it can become

    ___       ____     ______
   /   |     / __ )   / ____/
  / /| |    / __  |  / /
 / ___ |   / /_/ /  / /___
/_/  |_|  /_____/   \____/

Finally is ASCII character representations of real pictures. It’s not a very tricky job. Just find the gray scale of the pictures and replace the pixels with ASCII characters. Below is a example.

alt text

I use the tool ASCII Generator to generate the pictures. It’s available in Windows and you donwnload from here. It’s very easy to use and you can generate ASCII pictures from your photo and use it as a great avatar.

Next time when you feel real bored, at least there is one thing you know that can kill time~~~