Hacker News Reader

Comment by milen | Hacker News Reader

Shameless plug - Monodraw [1] is perfectly suited to create the ASCII diagrams for this. I'm planning to add special support for ASCII Image if there's enough demand - so definitely let me know.

[1] http://monodraw.helftone.com

View on HN

Wow, monodraw is a really polished app. That's a fascinating business model, too - your own idea, or inspired by another? Are you planning on giving users notice when the beta period is about to end?

I'm not 100% sure I'll really get regular use out of it, but I'm tempted to buy a copy anyway, mainly because I think you deserve reward for the effort that's obviously gone into it.

If I could wish for anything it would be this: is it even remotely possible for shapes from a plain text file to be interpreted as monodraw objects, rather than just one big text field?

> Wow, monodraw is a really polished app. That's a fascinating business model, too - your own idea, or inspired by another? Are you planning on giving users notice when the beta period is about to end?

Thank you for your kind words :) I think the business model has been inspired from the indie scene over the years. Simply put, I do not want to charge customers before the product is of quality that I deem adequate. That's why the beta is freely available without any restrictions. If anyone feels generous enough to support us before v1 ships, they get 40% off in return.

Yes, I plan to provide ample warning over email, Twitter + our blog.

> I'm not 100% sure I'll really get regular use out of it, but I'm tempted to buy a copy anyway, mainly because I think you deserve reward for the effort that's obviously gone into it.

I greatly appreciate the support. Even if you don't purchase it, knowing that you like the app is enough to motivate me to further work on it. From a financial perspective, every purchase counts - as an indie, my livelihood depends on the apps I make, I don't have any other income.

> If I could wish for anything it would be this: is it even remotely possible for shapes from a plain text file to be interpreted as monodraw objects, rather than just one big text field?

That has been requested a few times and it's something that I'm considering. It's not very high on my list but if I receive enough requests for it, I'll bump up it. I don't have a roadmap that is set in stone and I'm pretty flexible when it comes to the development of Monodraw - I'm willing to listen to the users.

I will write the promised README, btw :)

Wow. That looks like a dream come true. (if only it worked on my computer)

I guess a Windows or Linux version is never going to happen? I'd love to be able to run this.

Unfortunately, it's very unlikely. I'm a Mac developer and that's why Monodraw is written for OS X (in Obj-C).

I'm a supporter of all platforms but I do not have any cross-platform desktop GUI skills.

Windows or Linux people who want to do ASCII art should do it in DOSBOX with THEDRAW: http://www.syaross.org/thedraw/

I am slightly confused:

> Once the beta period ends, your copy of Monodraw would expire and you would not longer be able to use it.

Does this apply when you purchase the beta?

No, if you purchase the beta (and register it with the serial key), it will never expire.

Ah, thanks!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com