IdeaWell

Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

Monosketch

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

Three prevailing themes in the discussion

Theme What users said Representative quotes
1. Feature set & usability Participants debated what the tool can actually do (polygons, copy‑to‑text, round‑trip editing) and how it fits into a workflow. “I just tried all the examples on the home page, it works perfectly.” – simgt
“I found cmd+shift+c in the keyboard shortcuts.” – lemontheme
“I think it would be possible to maintain an internal model of copied objects, while the clipboard is always filled with usable ASCII?” – TonyStr
2. Positioning vs. other diagramming apps The tool was compared to Monodraw, Excalidraw, draw.io, and other ASCII‑based editors, with users weighing pros, cons, and price. “This is really cool. Better than draw.io and excalidraw.” – alexhr
“Monodraw got an update the other week. It isn’t being changed, but it doesn’t need to.” – jen729w
“Monodraw is in maintenance mode and non‑free. Based on the name, pretty sure that Monosketch is an explicit replacement.” – Apreche
3. Open‑source / licensing & accessibility Opinions split on the value of a paid, closed‑source product versus a free, FOSS alternative, and on the inherent accessibility problems of ASCII diagrams. “But it’s not open, and can’t be edited by those who want to. We should always support FOSS.” – orangecoffee
“ASCII art is an accessibility nightmare so please don’t use it for docs unless you know what you’re doing and have made it accessible in some other way.” – nasso_dev
“ASCII doesn’t contain box‑drawing characters or arrows. I guess it’s a lost cause though…” – Sharlin

These three themes—feature usability, market positioning, and open‑source/accessibility concerns—capture the bulk of the conversation.

🚀 Project Ideas

Generating project ideas…

AsciiSketcher

Summary

  • Open‑source web editor that supports polygons, not just rectangles, for ASCII diagramming.
  • Enables round‑trip editing: copy diagram to clipboard as pure ASCII, paste back into editors or markdown, and edit again.
  • Provides PNG export, Obsidian plugin, and a clean UI for quick diagram creation.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Developers, writers, Obsidian users, terminal users who need plain‑text diagrams
Core Feature Interactive ASCII diagram editor with polygon support, copy‑to‑ASCII clipboard, round‑trip, PNG export, Obsidian plugin
Tech Stack React + Canvas, Node.js backend, WebSocket for real‑time sync, WebAssembly for rendering
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • “I want to copy diagram to text” (TonyStr) – this tool solves that by filling the clipboard with ASCII instead of JSON.
  • “Add a ‘paste text to clipboard’ button” (rho4) – the UI will feature a prominent copy‑to‑ASCII button.
  • Open‑source nature satisfies “We should always support FOSS” (orangecoffee).
  • Discussion potential: how to best encode polygons in plain text, integration with LLMs for auto‑generation.

AsciiDiagram CLI

Summary

  • Terminal‑based tool for parsing, rendering, and editing ASCII diagrams directly in the console.
  • Supports round‑trip editing, PNG export, and integration with editors via file watches.
  • Ideal for CI pipelines, remote servers, and users who prefer a TUI.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Terminal users, developers, CI/CD pipelines, remote server admins
Core Feature TUI editor, ASCII parser, PNG renderer, file‑watch export, clipboard integration
Tech Stack Rust (crossterm, termion), image crate, optional Go fallback
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • “I’m making a similar tool currently, and the reality is no because of the nature of it being character based” (bargainbin) – this CLI will handle character‑based diagrams natively.
  • “I want to use in terminal” (lemontheme) – the tool is designed for terminal use.
  • Potential for discussion: best practices for round‑trip parsing, integration with LLMs for auto‑generation, and embedding in markdown.

AI‑ASCII Diagram Generator

Summary

  • Web service that uses LLMs to generate ASCII diagrams from natural language or code snippets.
  • Provides an interactive editor to tweak the output, export to PNG, and copy as ASCII.
  • Aims to reduce manual diagramming effort and support AI‑driven development workflows.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Developers, writers, educators, AI enthusiasts
Core Feature LLM inference for diagram generation, interactive editor, PNG export, copy‑to‑ASCII
Tech Stack Python, FastAPI, OpenAI API, React frontend
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue‑ready: subscription

Notes

  • “ASCII‑Driven Development” (sbondaryev) – this tool directly supports that workflow.
  • “I just tried all the examples on the home page, it works perfectly” (simgt) – the service will provide ready‑to‑copy examples.
  • Discussion potential: LLM accuracy, accessibility of ASCII diagrams, and how to encode polygons in plain text.

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