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Show HN: Grow an ASCII Bonsai Tree

andai.tv

25 pointsandai18 comments

Hi HN! I made a little ASCII Bonsai tree that grows in the browser.

I was inspired by this bash script:

https://p.teknik.io/Raw/EWWzQ

              &&
             &&&&&
           &&&\/& &&&
          &&|,/  |/& &&
           &&/   /  /_&  &&
             \  {  |_____/_&
             {  / /          &&&
             .`. \{___\________\/_\}
              \} \}\{       \
              }\{\{         \____&
             \{\}\{           `&&&
             {{}             &&
       , -=-~{ .-^- _
             `}
              {

Beautiful! Any plan to make more versions?

Thank you! :) I'm thinking about making it grow more slowly. Right now there's no representation of the tree apart from what you see, just particles that draw it as they go along.

Would be fun to come up with a ASCII rendering system... maybe it could sway gently in the breeze?

Do these use Lindenmayer systems? [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-system

Not yet :) It's just a recursive drawing function. I'm thinking of making the tree actually "exist" though, so it can grow more slowly over time. Thanks for the link!

If you are thinking about using L-Systems, I would say for your purposes the L-System should be nondeterministic. One way of doing that would be to introduce a slight and deliberate error into the substitution steps.

On Firefox mobile the page spawns about 10 print options dialogs.

Works perfectly on Safari mobile. Nice work!

I can confirm this. Firefox on iPad, latest version of both.

Ahh, I named a function print(). I had no idea this was built in! Thank you.

Edit: Fixed! Also, looks much better on phones now.

It would be cool if you could trim them like a real Bonsai tree and maybe have them grow more slowly. Store the state in localstorage and the user could come back again and again to grow their potted ASCII art

Yes, I've been thinking about this! It might work as a New Tab page.

Nice piece of digital artwork, and inspiring.

I would like to see all the possible eventual shapes of all those trees beginning from the current state, given branch pruning choices.

Very cute. I like it! Simple and to the point.

It told me to push CMD+U for the source. On safari, though, it's CMD+Option+U. Not that it matters much :) Good work!

Fixed, thanks!

I was led to believe growing a bonsai tree involved a lot more trimming. Maybe I'm a natural.

"Purposes of bonsai are primarily contemplation for the viewer, and the pleasant exercise of effort and ingenuity for the grower."

Still figuring out the second part!

Gardening could be a cool genre of VR games.

- Bonsai

- Arboriculture: big bonsai

- Topiary

- Hedge mazes

- Felling trees

- Chopping wood

That's a great idea! Gardening is so relaxing...

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