ASCII Artitecture

Published February 3, 2022

I like ASCII art. Who doesn’t? That’s rhetorical.

So, why not use ASCII art for architecture diagrams? Hence, art + architecture = art-itecture.

The rendered result is a 1:1 replica of the authored content and it’s easy to update. No, it’s not fancy like a Mermaid diagram. It’s not a perfect solution for every situation, but it’s good for many. It also gives that retro, artisan, hand-crafted vibe that is hard to beat.

Let’s dogfood it—here’s what this blog would look like:

      +-------+
      |       |
      |  you  |
      |       |
      +---+---+
          |
          |
  +-------+-------+
  |               |
  |  HTTP client  |
  | (web browser) |
  |               |
  +-------+-------+
          |
          |
   +------+-------+
   |              |
   |     DNS      |
   | (Cloudflare) |
   |              |
   +------+-------+
          |
          |
+---------+----------------------------------+
|                                            |
|                                            |
|            this blog (paul.af)             |
|        behind the scenes is Node.js        |
|        fronted by NGINX (blot.im)          |
|                                            |
|                                            |
+-----------------------------+-------^------+
                              |       |
                              |       |
                           +--v-------+---+
                           |              |
                           |   Dropbox    |
                           |              |
                           +------+-------+
                                  |
                                  |
                            +-----+-------+
                            |             |
                            | text editor |
                            |             |
                            +-----+-------+
                                  |
                                  |
                               +--+---+
                               |      |
                               |  me  |
                               |      |
                               +------+

I used ASCIIFlow to create this, if you’re looking for a tool to use.

Blot—the platform powering this blog—has a high-fidelity plaintext README that has likely inspired this for years. Thanks, David¹.

I love hearing from readers so please feel free to reach out.

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Last modified February 2, 2022  #programming   #documentation