Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams

Donald Eastlake <d3e3e3@gmail.com> Tue, 10 February 2026 21:47 UTC

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From: Donald Eastlake <d3e3e3@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2026 16:47:21 -0500
Message-ID: <CAF4+nEGD_UMcayDFsU=d3kw-4gHsmix+ZzaMSdmXA=M2jsivUA@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams
To: Phillip Hallam-Baker <phill@hallambaker.com>
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CC: Robert Moskowitz <rgm-ietf=40htt-consult.com@dmarc.ietf.org>, Job Snijders <job@bsd.nl>, ietf@ietf.org
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I usually use the text version. Furthermore, I might mention that as
an author of 109 RFCs I have never, at least for these RFCs, run into
a situation where I felt that ASCII art was inadequate to express what
I wanted when I felt a diagram was needed.

Thanks,
Donald
===============================
 Donald E. Eastlake 3rd   +1-508-333-2270 (cell)
 2386 Panoramic Circle, Apopka, FL 32703 USA
 d3e3e3@gmail.com

On Tue, Feb 10, 2026 at 1:39 PM Phillip Hallam-Baker
<phill@hallambaker.com> wrote:
>
> Serious question: What proportion of readers read the ASCII versions any more? I certainly do not and have no plans to.
>
> A much more productive approach would be to close the ASCII presentation down and allow use of actual standards based SVG art in drafts, not a specification abandoned over a decade ago that is unsupported by any serious drawing tools.
>
> On Tue, Feb 10, 2026 at 8:10 AM Robert Moskowitz <rgm-ietf=40htt-consult.com@dmarc.ietf.org> wrote:
>>
>> A purpose based tool is better than assuming you can figure out how to
>> ask AI to get it right!
>>
>> My ADS-B paper has at least 11 datagram figures.  The busiest one has 19
>> fields (though 2 of the pretty much repeat 6 times for a "6-pack")
>>
>> 7 figures done already and I could not have done it hand-drawing or
>> asking AI.
>>
>> Also, these datagrams are designed around 56-bit groupings and it is
>> easy to do that (--bits 56).  Of course when it comes time to write the
>> ID, I don't know how I will put that into a text draft.  That is 112
>> bytes wide drawing which works in Word and HTML, but not too well in our
>> 72-char wide txt objects!
>>
>> This program definitely should be added to IETF tools.
>>
>> Bob
>>
>> On 2/10/26 7:28 AM, Job Snijders wrote:
>> > On Mon, Feb 09, 2026 at 07:58:51PM -0500, Robert Moskowitz wrote:
>> >> Just to let others here know..
>> >>
>> >> It was a bit of work.  Carsten did a fork to fix a bug or so. Kesara gave a
>> >> hand, and now it is installed.
>> >>
>> >> $ protocol DF:5,C:3,24AN:24,TC:5,MSG:51,CRC:24
>> >>   0                   1                   2                3
>> >>   0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
>> >> +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
>> >> |    DF   |  C  |                      24AN                     |
>> >> +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
>> >> |    TC   |                         MSG                         |
>> >> +-+-+-+-+-+                                     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
>> >> |                                               |               |
>> >> +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
>> >> |              CRC              |
>> >> +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
>> >>
>> >> For the current ADS-B 112-bit message.
>> > So you were better off not using AI? :-)
>> >
>> > Kind regards,
>> >
>> > Job
>>

AI for creating ASCII art diagrams Robert Moskowitz
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams Erik Kline
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams Robert Moskowitz
Algorithm (not AI, please) for creating ASCII art… Ross Finlayson
Re: Algorithm (not AI, please) for creating ASCII… Robert Moskowitz
Re: Algorithm (not AI, please) for creating ASCII… Robert Moskowitz
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams Michael StJohns
Real program (was: Re: AI) for creating ASCII art… Carsten Bormann
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams Michael StJohns
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams Job Snijders
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams Phillip Hallam-Baker
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams Michael StJohns
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams John C Klensin
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams Robert Moskowitz
Re: Real program (was: Re: AI) for creating ASCII… Erik Kline
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams Robert Moskowitz
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams Jan Schaumann
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams Donald Eastlake
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams Rob Sayre
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams Hesham ElBakoury
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams Christian Huitema
Re: Real program (was: Re: AI) for creating ASCII… Carsten Bormann
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams Robert Moskowitz
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams Brian E Carpenter
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams Robert Moskowitz
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams Michael Richardson
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams Robert Moskowitz
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams Robert Moskowitz
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams Robert Moskowitz
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams Carsten Bormann
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams Robert Moskowitz
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams John Levine
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams Carsten Bormann
Re: AI for creating ASCII art diagrams Carsten Bormann