Plain text has been around for decades and it’s here to stay

There’s a category of “plain text” or “ASCII” diagramming and UI design tools:

• Mockdown – works immediately on the web, even on mobile
• Wiretext – works on the web, but desktop only
• Monodraw – a Mac app

I believe these are used by people who prefer intentionally limited visual choices, for low-key diagramming to put in source code, and – increasingly – as an entry point to gen AI.

They’re so interesting from the standpoint of this blog:

• Fun to see a contemporary take on something that peaked between 1970s–1980s – you can look up TUIs and Turbo Vision if you want – but (just like Mario the other day) now with modern sensibilities, performance, web access, mouse and trackpad affordances, and so on.
• It’s interesting simply as an exercise in constraint. I believe constraint practice will become more and more important as computers become more and more capable. It’s already useful to constrain yourself in order to make things easier for you. With the rise of AI, self-constraint will become important to make things harder, as well.
• There is a certain power and longevity of monospace plain text that’s worth celebrating – not just because the file format is portable, but because text editing as interface is so well-known and potent.

Also, ASCII spray in Mockdown is just really fun:

(Caveat: These tools are “ASCII” in a colloquial sense, the same way people use “GIFs” to refer to a certain category of looping animations.)