Xasc Plugin - Support for diz,nfo,asc file types

[Nikolay Raspopov]

Xasc - ASCII Graphics (MS DOS plain text) Plugin

Download Here

Unpack the archive into '..\Program Files\XnView\PlugIns' folder.

[helmut]

Xasc - ASCII Graphics (MS DOS plain text) Plugin

Xasc_1.0.0.1.zip

Another one from the 'Plug-In-Factory' - Thank you very much Nikolay!

I assume that the same things apply as for your HTML and SWF plug-ins:

The plug-in is
- programmed by you
- available for free for all XnView users (GPL)
- still under development

I've tried it out and my text file is shown as graphic. Nice.

As you might know I always look for things to improve:

- Not sure whether it's Pierre's job or your job: Currently the preview looks pretty ugly, at 67% Zoom the text is still almost unreadable.

- The text is shown with black characters on white paper in Courier font, would be nice if both background and foreground colour could be user-defined. Also font type and font-size at 100% should be settable.

These are just my ideas which came to my mind when quickly looking at the Xasc plugin - not sure whether other user really need such options.

[Nikolay Raspopov]

ASCII XnView logo:
XnView-logo.zip

[helmut]

ASCII XnView logo:
XnView-logo.zip

Nice logo of XnView. Which tool did you use for generating?

When first reading and using the Xasc plug-in, I wondered what it should be for. But now I understand: It's for displaying ASCII art, i.e. graphics created using ASCII characters, only. Like the XnView logo that you have just posted or this one:

Code: Select all


       / \      _-'
     _/|  \-''- _ /
__-' { |          \
    /             \
    /       "o.  |o }
    |            \ ;
                  ',
       \_         __\
         ''-_    \.//
           / '-____'
          /
        _'
      _-'


And the plug-in uses the old DOS font which is best for viewing these - right? So the suggestions to have a setting for the font does not really make sense.

Now that I understand what the asc files are, could someone explain for me and other readers: What are the formats diz and nfo? I could look it up on http://www.fileext.com, but sometimes there's several hits for one file extension. And it's nice to have the info here.

[Nikolay Raspopov]

Nfo and diz (file_id.diz) is simple plain text probably with pseudo-graphics symbols commonly used by hackers demogroups (true hackers neither crackers nor carders).

[SeaMaiden]

The link for Xnview-logo.zip described above is no longer valid. I'm into icons and would very much like to download this file.

[Nikolay Raspopov]

fixed

[SeaMaiden]

Thanks. I've never seen such a file before. What applications other than XnView can open an (.asc) ascii file? Did you create this logo in XnView or in another program?

[ckit]

ASCII art files are mainly viewed with text editors (Notepad.exe) a lot of illegal software has NFO files that have ASCII coding requiring the use of the terminal font to look good.

ASCII coding is an art, practised by a few.

[SeaMaiden]

Legitimate software can also have .diz and .nfo files. A freeware text editor from Outer Technologies called GetDiz can create them. This program is very useful for ascii art (.asc).

GetDiz 3.0
Requirements: Windows 95/98/ME/NT4/2000/XP
Supported Formats: nfo, diz, asc, text, ini, and more
License: Freeware
Developer: http://www.outertech.com
Description: Many downloadable ZIP archives have DIZ and NFO files included within them. Sure, they're simple text files that can be viewed with Notepad, but GetDiz is a freeware text-viewer especially designed for those files. ASCII art is displayed correctly and the user interface is small, handy and specific. Version 3 includes several new features like Print support, URL launch, Find/Replace, Trim copy and Keyword highlights.

[ckit]

Xasc - ASCII Graphics (MS DOS plain text) Plugin

Xasc_1.0.0.1.zip

[edited]
Important: Place the plug-in in '..\Program Files\XnView\PlugIns' folder ![/i]

This plugin needs updating for use with XnView 1.80.1.

[Nikolay Raspopov]

plugin updated

[ckit]

Huge thanks!

[Nikolay Raspopov]

version 1.2.0.0 released

[budz45]

I usually view my NFO files as text in Notepad++ and have knwon for some time that they are intended to be viewed like an image in ASCII etc

Thank you for such a splendid plugin.