23 May
2000
23 May
'00
2:57 p.m.
I am making the assumption that most of these ASCII art files were scanned
from actual pictures and then rendered by some software?
If so, is this software still around???
Actually, the technique is fairly simple to program.
It was actually used in Geography/map-making programs, as a way of
printing out maps. I used to use a geographic information System
that could print out the resulting geographical answers using
various overstrikes to generate a greyscale map on normal 9 pin
dot matrix printers. And I've seen the output of many other
such programs while I was working on a second BS in geography.
I probably still have some geography books that have examples of those maps
for illustrative purposes.
-Lawrence LeMay