The Hacker News discussion about ASCIIMoon reveals several prominent themes regarding its functionality, accuracy, presentation as ASCII art, and nostalgic appeal. Many users expressed appreciation for the project's concept and aesthetic, but a significant portion focused on perceived inaccuracies in the moon's phase rendering, particularly the depiction of shadows. There was also a strong sentiment that the project did not fully adhere to the principles of true ASCII art.
Nostalgic Charm and Appreciation
A number of commenters found the project to be charming, evoking childhood memories and a sense of wonder. This sentiment was often expressed alongside general positive feedback on the project's visual appeal.
- DR felt it brought back the "charm" of childhood experiences: "This project totally brings back that kind of charm, but with a digital twist. It took me straight back to childhood."
- supportengineer simply stated, "That's absolutely beautiful!"
- JKCalhoun and wompapumpum offered short, positive affirmations: "Very cool." and "very cool" respectively.
- absurdwebsite also chimed in with praise: "Cool project!"
Inaccurate Lunar Phase Rendering
A dominant theme in the discussion was the perceived inaccuracy in how the moon's phases and shadows were depicted. Many users pointed out that the shading and the shape of the occluding shadow did not align with astronomical reality, especially when compared to how moon phases are supposed to appear.
- aavaa criticized the use of a bitmap mask: "While cool it’s a bit of a cop out to use a bitmap as a mask for both the circular shape and the shading of the earth’s shadow."
- ludicrousdispla explained the fundamental issue: "Lunar phase should be showing the moon's shadow (on itself) which will not be circular from our perspective on Earth except during the new moon phase. This looks more like what is seen during a solar eclipse."
- eichin agreed, stating, "Yeah, this rendering is Just Wrong - moon phase is viewing a half-lit sphere from different angles, no external shadows are involved."
- JKCalhoun elaborated on the desired accuracy: "I want the shadow that progresses across the moon to match reality. A crescent shape that always goes through the north and south poles — that flattens as it approaches a quarter moon...."
- p1mrx also noted the physical impossibility of the rendering: "The current shadow looks physically impossible... or it would only be possible during a lunar eclipse."
- dandrino_ critiqued specific phase representations: "A gibbous moon shouldn't look like it had a bite taken out of it."
- SlowTao provided a detailed comparison: "While I love the ASCII art, yeah... thats not how the moon phase works. At half moon it should be exactly half occluded, so like it was cut in half, not just a weird circle cut out."
- kingstnap further clarified the misconception: "But earth's shadows aren't what create moon phases IRL. The real moon phases are from the sun lighting the moon from different angles so this is just super weird."
- shagie referenced an external source for comparison and quantified the perceived error: "The moon for July 2nd should be something that is a half circle illuminated and a half circle in the dark. ... I’d have to sit down and do the math, but there is way more than 51.79% illuminated in today’s rendering."
Definition and Purity of ASCII Art
Several users debated whether the project truly qualified as "ASCII art," citing its use of color, non-standard sizing, and the clipping of shadows mid-character as deviations from traditional ASCII art principles.
- way_stone expressed a core expectation: "If 'live in ASCII art' is the pitch, it's reasonable to expect ASCII itself being the part that is 'live'."
- emptybits suggested a change: "It's ASCII art. Drop the bitmap mask."
- divbzero questioned specific visual elements: "Why is the bottom edge of the ASCII moon a black crescent? Is that a real lunar phenomenon or just a rendering artifact in my browser?"
- thot_experiment felt the project was pushing the boundaries of what constitutes ASCII art: "I feel like ascii art loses something when it's not sized to a standard text mode (at least to width, like 132x132 is fine). At some point you’re just using weird pixels and this is approaching that for me. Same goes for changing the color of the characters continuously; terminal colors are cool. I'm probably just a crazy purist."
- aylons argued that the project was not ASCII art at all: "It's not even just that: the shadows go mid-character, instead of using characters as pixels. It is just not ASCII ART at all, just some ASCII characters used as a filler."
- Wowfunhappy stated a strong opinion on color: "I actually feel like using color at all is cheating. I'm okay with a wider width than 132 px, but it needs to be sized such that you can clearly make out the letters, which I can't in the TFA."
- wang_li made two key observations: "First, there comes a point when it’s not ascii art, it’s just dithering. The use of different colors for the characters goes even further from ascii art." and "Second, opening this on my iPad results in a moon with a black crescent on the bottom and an oddly shaped dark green crescent on the left. What star system is this moon in?"
Suggestions for Improvement and Alternative Implementations
Beyond critiques, users offered concrete suggestions for improving the project, including adding features like libration, persistent URLs, lunar eclipses, and making the rendering more accurate. Some also pointed to existing projects that they believed were more aligned with the spirit of the ASCIIMoon concept or offered more accurate representations.
- eichin recommended an alternative project: "Maybe look at https://github.com/chubin/pyphoon instead, which claims a history including Jef Poskanzer code going back to the 1970s..."
- omoikane linked to a relevant XKCD comic: "See also: https://xkcd.com/1738/"
- divbzero pointed out another "not possible" representation: "Also not possible: common representations of the star and crescent."
- echelon made feature requests: "I have two additional feature requests: 1. Persistent URLs (replaceState) 2. Lunar eclipses."
- Nition suggested a change based on hemisphere: "Could you possibly detect the user's approximate location and rotate the whole thing 180 degrees if they're in the southern hemisphere?"
- adzm wished for more dynamic features: "I really wish this had libration and a way to watch it animate through the phases."
- tingletech shared their own related project: "I made a moon phase with javascript and SVG once https://github.com/tingletech/moon-phase"
- jpecar reminisced about a predecessor: "Reminds me of ACME phoon ... I used to have this in my .bashrc ;)"
Accessibility and Technical Functionality
A few comments touched upon the project's accessibility and how it rendered across different devices or under specific conditions.
- flymasterv and _joel provided direct links to access the service: "https://wttr.in/Moon" and "curl https://wttr.in/Moon".
- supportengineer suggested an even more retro method: "finger moon@hostname".
- layer8 noted a rendering issue and discussed character resolution: "The match between the ASCII part and the clipping circle breaks when zooming out too much on a desktop browser. Also, given sufficient character "resolution", ASCII art approximates pixel art. This isn't very far from it, with (on my screen) characters of 3x7 pixels. And would require a 200x78 character terminal to fully display."
- chaoskitty reported a potential site malfunction: "Is it just me, or is the site not working right now? It loads, but it doesn't show the date, and the buttons don't seem to change anything..."
- burtn-resistor offered constructive feedback: "Nice start, but it doesn't look or feel right somehow. Keep improving bit by bit."
Whimsical and Off-Topic Comments
A small number of comments were more lighthearted or tangential, referencing pop culture or making playful requests.
- 867-5309 humorously suggested a missing element: "there's no cow jumping over it. author's notepad.exe licence should be revoked."
- LAC-Tech engaged in a playful debate about hemispheres: "Down here, the moon looks technically the same, but it's 180 degrees rotated because we're standing upside-down when we look at it. We are standing the right way up your northernist simp. They are the ones who are wrong. Never forget it."
- CommenterPerson expressed a sentiment about the critical nature of the audience: "Man this is a tough crowd to impress! (yeah I know it's off but still)."