[Suggestions] - decode feature / branch generation

[Nixie-Cull]

• it'd be cool to eventually add a function to decode an image, to allow for actual communication, instead of having this be a glorified image generator.

  (altough it would be cool to know that the program uses the visual look of the spiral to decode it, it would seem much easier and more reliable to just store some data in the svg file)

• alongside that, perhaps a feature to add branches to a spiral. be it your own, or one sent by a friend.

  (maybe it could position the branches based on the number of branches present on the current spiral?
  though that seems easiest, it also feels inaccurate to the actual nomai script, where the branches appear wherever they feel like, it seems.)

[evanfields]

Thanks for opening issues! (and welcome to GitHub?)

Decode: This is on my wishlist, though I hadn't thought of embedding the message in the SVG as a workaround, which is a great idea. Decoding from a spiral image would be very tricky, but hypothetically possible if we resolve point 5 here: https://github.com/evanfields/NomaiText.jl/blob/main/todo.md

Branches: Agreed, this is the clear missing feature to take NomaiText to the next level; the branching structure is much of what makes Nomai writing special!

[Nixie-Cull]

I've been thinking.
if point 4 is resolved, perhaps a special character would be able to pin that specific location in the spiral.
(example: "[*1]" )

then later, you could "call back" on that pin to start a branch at that point in the spiral.
(example: "[*1-Lorem Ipsum]" )
which would then make a branch at the pinpointed location containing the bracketed text.

this would be an admittedly rudimentary way of making branches, but it would effectively eliminate the necessity for special graphic design. it would also allow the branches to be stored with no additional difficulties. (assuming the data storing works in the first place)

this could allow for spirals to act as they do in-lore, as a sort of "thread", allowing us to comment and elaborate on specific points of the text (don't quote me on the lore part, it is an assumption)

sorry if this is a bit unreadable. it is somewhat difficult to put largely intangible ideas into words.