As Simon Willison notes, this comparison underscores a quiet but significant shift in developer workflows. The real story isn't the specific ASCII art tool, but the emerging pattern of using AI models as a universal adapter for legacy or niche code. This points to a future where AI's value may be less in creating flashy new demos and more in silently extending the lifespan and interoperability of the vast corpus of existing software. In our view, this kind of infrastructural glue work, while unglamorous, could prove more durable than many hyped AI features.
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Developer compares two Mermaid-to-ASCII tools compiled to WebAssembly
Simon Willison tests two open-source libraries converted to WebAssembly, noting one adds color support.
AIpressr commentary on an article originally published by Simon Willison.
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Read the original article at simonwillison.net →Source: Simon Willison, simonwillison.net — Jul 16, 2026
“This one includes support for colors!”
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