gpt actually did ok

gpt spiral ascii

def draw_spiral(size)
  grid = Array.new(size * 2 + 1) { Array.new(size * 2 + 1, ' ') }

  x, y = size, size
  direction = 0 # 0: right, 1: down, 2: left, 3: up
  step = 1

  (size * size).times do |i|
    grid[y][x] = '*'
    case direction
    when 0
      x += 1
    when 1
      y += 1
    when 2
      x -= 1
    when 3
      y -= 1
    end

    # Change direction if necessary
    case direction
    when 0 # moving right
      if x > size + step
        direction = 1 # change to down
      end
    when 1 # moving down
      if y > size + step
        direction = 2 # change to left
        step += 1
      end
    when 2 # moving left
      if x < size - step
        direction = 3 # change to up
      end
    when 3 # moving up
      if y < size - step
        direction = 0 # change to right
        step += 1
      end
    end
  end

  # Convert grid to a string representation
  grid.map { |row| row.join }.join("\n")
end

# Example usage:
size = 20
puts draw_spiral(size)


##
## lets build our own version of this where we dont actually manually draw every square of the spiral but compute the lines from top to bottom
## later cause im lazy