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@@ -1,53 +0,0 @@ -gramscii -- interactive tool for ASCII box-and-arrows charts -============================================================ - -```gramscii``` (pronounced "grrr'a(m)sky", more or less like "ASCII" but -with a leading "grrr") is a simple CLI tool to create and edit -box-and-arrows charts using ASCII characters. - -```gramscii``` is interactive and its commands are quite intuitive to -anybody who does not need a mouse to be productive. You can move around -the screen with the usual ```hjkl``` keys, but you will travel at -ligthning speed by placing another finger on ```SHIFT```. You start -drawing a box with ```b```, and you place an arrow with ```a```. For -more information, just read the manpage. - -```gramscii``` aims at remaining small, avoiding bloat, and being -portable. It is written in ASCII C90, it requires only an ANSI -VT100-compatible terminal (real or virtual), and it does not use any -external library (nope, not even ncurses!). Hence, you should be able to -compile and run ```gramscii``` on any operating system with a C90 libc -and a VT100 terminal emulator. - -WHY? -==== - -As most of the software out there, ```gramscii``` comes out of -frustration and pain. - -I have been producing box-and-arrow diagrams in ASCII for quite a while. -I know that there exist ad-hoc plugins for ```vim(1)``` and -```emacs(1)```, but I was not happy with any of them, to say the least. - -At the same time, there has been a recent proliferation of browser-based -point-and-click tools to draw ASCII charts. Like, are you serious? Why -on Earth should people accept to load 1 million LOCs of obscure -javascript code on a hyper-bloated web browser and use a fancy -point-and-click interface to produce......guess what......ASCII charts -that are best-viewed viewed on a VT100 terminal? - -We must say no to madness. We must repudiate bloat. We must reject -useless featurism. Software must be reasonable, simple, small, and -functional. - -But wait... -============ - -If you have noticed that the name ```gramscii``` is too much reminiscent -of Antonio Gramsci, the phylosopher and politician who was among the -founders of the Italian Communist Party in 1921, who strongly believed -that every single human is an intellectual, a philosopher, and an -artist, and who maintained that societal changes are only possible when -a class exerts intellectual and moral leadership over its -contemporaries, well then just get rid of all your shiny iPointless -things and come back to reality. |