DEV Community: Tanmaya Naik

Turning ASCII folder trees into real project structures (built this while experimenting)

Tanmaya Naik — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 11:41:28 +0000

When I’m experimenting with ideas or teaching myself through notes and small demos, I often sketch out folder structures as ASCII trees in my journal or docs.

project/
├── src/
│   ├── app.py
│   └── utils.py
├── README.md
└── requirements.txt

The structure itself usually comes first, before any framework or CLI. What I kept running into was the repetitive part — manually recreating that exact structure every time just to start experimenting.

So I built a small utility for myself that takes an ASCII folder tree and materializes it into an actual folder structure you can download as a ZIP.

I’m curious how others handle this when they’re:

experimenting with ideas
writing docs or notes for themselves
creating small demo or repro projects

Do you usually rely on framework CLIs, scripts, or just create things manually as you go?

Link (for context):

https://tancannon2003.pythonanywhere.com/tools/ascii-tree-to-zip

Would love honest feedback on whether this fits into anyone else’s workflow.

Why “Busywork” Kills Creativity When I’m Just Trying to Experiment

Tanmaya Naik — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 14:05:59 +0000

When I’m experimenting with a new idea or building something small for myself, the thing that kills momentum fastest isn’t bugs or missing features — it’s busywork.

Stuff like:

Recreating the same folder structure again and again

Renaming files just to “feel organized”

Spending 20 minutes on setup before writing a single line of logic

Frameworks like Flask or Django solve this pretty well with CLI scaffolding. You run one command and you’re ready to think about the actual problem.

But the moment I step outside a framework — building a small script, a side tool, or just exploring an idea — that safety net disappears. Suddenly I’m doing setup instead of experimenting.

What helped me was treating folder structure as supporting infrastructure, not part of the creative work itself. I still care about maintainability, but I don’t want structure decisions to block curiosity.

So now, when I’m experimenting, I try to:

Start with a minimal, predictable layout

Write things down once (in docs or notes) instead of rebuilding from scratch

Adjust structure after the idea proves useful

For me, maintainability matters most when something survives beyond the experiment. Until then, reducing friction helps me stay creative instead of burning out on setup.

Curious if others handle this differently when working outside frameworks.

I built a free tool to convert ASCII folder trees into ZIP files

Tanmaya Naik — Sat, 27 Dec 2025 12:01:09 +0000

When writing documentation, tutorials, or READMEs, I often describe folder structures like this:

project/
├── src/
│   ├── app.py
│   └── utils.py
├── README.md
└── requirements.txt

At some point, I wondered:

Why can’t I just turn this into a real folder structure instantly?

Surprisingly, there wasn’t a simple tool that did exactly this — so I built one.

The problem

ASCII folder trees are great for:

Documentation
Tutorials
Teaching projects
Explaining structure in chats or blogs

But when you want to actually create those folders and files, you have to:

Manually recreate everything
Or write scripts
Or install tools that are overkill

That breaks the flow.

The solution

I built a free online tool that:

Takes an ASCII folder tree
Converts it into a real folder structure
Lets you download it instantly as a ZIP file

No signup.
No installs.
Just paste → generate → download.

How it works (simple)

Paste your ASCII tree
Click generate
Download the ZIP
Extract → done

It preserves:

Folder hierarchy
File names
Nesting structure

Who is this useful for?

Developers writing docs
Students learning project structures
Teachers creating examples
Anyone sharing folder layouts online

Why I kept it simple

I intentionally avoided:

Accounts
Ads
Complicated UI

The goal was:

One job. Done fast.

Try it out

You can use the tool here:
👉 ASCII Tree to Folder

I’d genuinely love feedback:

Edge cases
Missing features
Improvements

Thanks for reading 🙌