instructions.txt

Hello! This is the documentation for a very small, shitty program called TextBuild. https://infinit.io/_/VvzbjyJ
Note that the program must be extracted before use - i.e. you can't use it from within the zip.

This is a program to generate macro text, i.e. ASCII art that looks like text.

The program is named TextBuild.class. If you've never used Java before, it's very simple. Windows instructions, because I don't give a damn about *nix:
- Open the folder where you extracted the file.
- Shift-right click on the folder.
- Click 'Open command window here'.
- In the command prompt window, type 'java TextBuild'. The text box will then pop up.
- Enter your text in the box, and hit enter. The output will then be copied to the clipboard.
This program can also be used entirely from the command line. The program goes as follows: 'java TextBuild [input] [filename]'.
'input' is the text to be converted. 'filename' is an output file where the text will be stored, instead of copying to the clipboard.

Nothing in this program is hardcoded. All configuration is done through external text files. They came with the ZIP archive, but you can also make your own. All filenames are of the form '<c>.txt', where <c> is the single character that the file represents. For example, 'a' is stored in 'a.txt', 'c' is stored in 'c.txt', and '.' is stored in '..txt'. If a character cannot be typed in a filename, such as '>', the filename is then '$u<code>.txt', where <code> is the Unicode hex sequence of the file. This is zero-padded, i.e. to represent § you'd name the file '$u00a7.txt' and not '$ua7.txt'.
If you don't like the way that the folder looks, and want to move the txt files somewhere else, you can put them in a folder called 'charfiles' and the program will still work.
A little more handling - if you type '\n', it'll make a new line. I don't know how your platform-specific command prompt will handle this, so make sure it's a literal backslash and not an escape sequence. Windows is fine if you quote it. Also, I wrote this with the intent of shitposting on 4chan, so the ` character (grave) inserts a line of greentext >'s. This isn't hardcoded; it's in the `.txt file.

There's also an options.txt file. This contains a couple of configuration options. Note that this can't go in charfiles. The first option is 'numLines'. This is the number of lines that your text uses. Default is 5. The second option is 'caseSensitive'. This is whether or not your macro text font has both uppercase and lowercase. Default is false. The third option is 'doubleNewline'. When you type \n, this determines whether or not you want two linebreaks or just one. The program also functions fine without an options.txt file, but then nothing's configurable.

If you've got any questions or suggestions, email me at [email protected]. I'll read them all.