DOUBLE-ASC(1)

📦 version 7.44.0, in nixpkgs unstable

💖 double-asc(1) 💖 — the BRL-CAD glow-up where numbers become words

okay bestie, welcome to double-asc(1), the BRL-CAD tool that takes your scary binary double soup and turns it into text you can actually look at with your own eyeballs 👀✨

🌈 NAME 🌈

double-asc — convert a stream of IEEE doubles to ASCII text 🫶

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

double-asc [-a] [-c] [-f format] [-s squaresize] [-w width] [-n height] [-# depth] [file.d]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So here's the vibe: double-asc reads a stream of binary, network-order (big-endian) IEEE double-precision floating-point values and writes them out as human-readable ASCII text, one logical sample per line. That's the whole personality 💅

Input comes from the file you name as file.d — or, if you don't name a file at all, it just reads from standard input. Either way, the formatted text goes to standard output. slay.

By default each line holds a single value formatted with " %g". The -# option groups several doubles together as one multi-column sample (think: a 3-tuple per pixel, iconic), and the -f option overrides the output format string. And the image-size options (-a, -s, -w, -n)? They exist so that, with -c, each sample can be labelled with its column and row coordinates within an image of the given dimensions. coords on coords, we love to see it 📍

This command is the inverse companion of tools that emit raw IEEE double data, and it's genuinely useful for inspecting or post-processing such streams with text utilities. lowkey a bridge between worlds ngl 🌉

⚠️ Note: double-asc is deprecated and scheduled for removal. Contact the developers if you rely on it. no cap — if this tool is your main character, speak up now 😭

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • -a — Autosize the input. When reading from a file, it attempts to infer the image width and height from the file size. let it figure itself out, honestly 💅
  • -c — Prepend the column and row cell coordinates to each output line. The coordinates wrap according to the configured image width. so every line gets its little address 🏷️
  • -f format — Set the printf(3)-style format string applied to each double. The default is " %g". you want a different look? go off ✨
  • -s squaresize — Set both the input width and height to squaresize pixels. square era 🟪
  • -w width — Set the input width in pixels (default 512).
  • -n height — Set the input height in pixels (default 512).
  • -# depth — Set the number of doubles per logical sample (output line). The default is 1. bundle those doubles, bestie 🎁
  • -h, -? — Print a usage message and exit. the classic "help me" duo 🙈

💜 EXAMPLES 💜

🌸 Example 1. Inspect a raw double-precision data file as text

double-asc samples.d | head

Dumps the contents of a binary IEEE-double file as plain numbers so the first few values can be eyed quickly. literally just a peek, no commitment 👀

🌸 Example 2. Label each pixel of a 256x256 three-channel double image

double-asc -c -w 256 -n 256 -# 3 image.d > image.txt

Treats the input as a 256-wide by 256-high image with three doubles per pixel, and writes — for every pixel — its column and row followed by the three component values. The result is easy to filter with awk(1) or load into a plotting tool. this is the one, fr fr 🔥📊

💫 SEE ALSO 💫

brlcad(1), asc2dsp(1), printf(3) — go read the friends of the family 🫶

👑 AUTHOR 👑

BRL-CAD Team 💖

This software is Copyright (c) 1989-2026 by the United States Government as represented by U.S. Army Research Laboratory.

🍓 BUG REPORTS 🍓

Reports of bugs or problems should be submitted via electronic mail to devs@brlcad.org 📬 — they're nice, promise, just tell them what happened 😭

and that's the whole page bestie 🧚‍♀️ — brought to you by the fine humans of BRL-CAD, filed under DOUBLE-ASC(1) in your friendly neighborhood manual set. now go turn some doubles into text ✨💅

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