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ScreenBuffer.md

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The ScreenBuffer

A screenBuffer is a buffer holding contents for a rectangular area. Each cell of the rectangular area contains:

  • a character
  • a 8-bit foreground color
  • a 8-bit background color
  • a style (bit flags: bold, dim, italic, underline, blink, inverse, hidden, strike)
  • a blending mask (bit flags: foreground transparency, background transparency, character transparency and style transparency)

They are two kinds of screenBuffers, depending on the write-destination:

  • screenBuffer writing directly to the terminal
  • screenBuffer writing to another screenBuffer

When there are a lot of moving things, it is a good practice to first create one big screenBuffer mapping the whole terminal, then create smaller screenBuffers writing to the terminal's screenBuffer, each one managing a part of the UI of the application, a widget, a moving area, a sprite, etc.

ScreenBuffer's write to the terminal are optimized (if the delta option is on): since writing to a terminal can be CPU-intensive, only cells that have changed are written, avoiding to refresh the whole screen for no reason. In that case, the screenBuffer will always try to minimize the amount of terminal escape sequences to produce the new frame.

Table of Contents

new ScreenBuffer( options )

  • options Object, where:
    • width integer buffer width (default: dst.width)
    • height integer buffer height (default: dst.height)
    • dst: Terminal or ScreenBuffer instance, the destination to write on
    • x integer (optional) default x-position in the dst
    • y integer (optional) default y-position in the dst
    • blending boolean (optional, default: false) default value for .draw()'s blending option, if true, blending is enabled (e.g. background transparency, char transparency, etc...)
    • wrap boolean (optional, default: false) default wrapping behavior of .put()
    • noFill boolean (optional, default: false) if true, the screenBuffer will not be filled with empty chars, i.e. it will not call .fill(), useful for performance to avoid useless reset

This creates a ScreenBuffer instance with the appropriate options.

ScreenBuffer.create( options )

DEPRECATED, use new ScreenBuffer() instead.

ScreenBuffer.createFromString( options , str )

  • options Object, where:
    • attr Object or integer attributes of the chars (attribute object or bit flags, see: the attribute object)
    • transparencyChar string (optional) a single character that will have get the transparency attribute
    • transparencyType integer (optional, default: full transparency) bit flags for the transparency char
  • str string the source string

This creates a ScreenBuffer instance from a string. The height and width of the screenBuffer is computed using respectively the number of lines and the length of the largest line. The string is written into the screenBuffer using the attr option. See the attr object and flags for details.

If the transparencyChar option is set, this character will produce a transparent cell, or if transparencyType is specified, a partly transparent cell. See the transparency flags for details.

ScreenBuffer.loadImage( url , [options] , callback )

  • url string the file path or URL of the image
  • options object (optional), where:
    • term Terminal (optional, default to termkit.terminal) pass a Terminal instance, so the correct palette will be known when converting the True Color image into a 8-bit ScreenBuffer
    • shrink object (optional, but recommanded) if set, the image may be shrinked to conform to the max width and height. When shrinking, aspect ratio is always preserved. It has those properties:
      • width integer the max width of the image
      • height integer the max height of the image
  • callback Function( error , image ) the callback, where:
    • error: truthy if an error occured
    • image ScreenBufferHD the screenBuffer of the image

This creates a ScreenBufferHD from an image. Support all format supported by get-pixels, namely PNG, JPEG and GIF. Only the first frame of GIF are used ATM.

It uses the upper half block UTF-8 character (▀) to double the height resolution and produces the correct aspect ratio: the upper half having a foreground color and the lower half having the background color.

The shrink object option can be used to reduce the size of the image. It is suggested to set it to { width: term.width, height: term.height * 2 } to avoid creating a 2000 lines image.

The alpha channel is correctly supported, also it is important to draw that image to another screenBufferHD for this to work as expected (remember: blending only works when drawing on another screenBufferHD). Moreover, the target buffer must have consistent foreground and background color, since all the area will be filled with ▀ characters.

Something like that will do the trick:

var screen = new ScreenBuffer( { dst: term , noFill: true } ) ;

screen.fill( attr: {
	// Both foreground and background must have the same color
	color: 0 ,
	bgColor: 0
} } ) ;

ScreenBuffer.loadImage(
	path_to_image ,
	{ terminal: term , shrink: { width: term.width , height: term.height * 2 } } ,
	function( error , image ) {
		if ( error ) { throw error ; }	// Doh!
		
		image.draw( { dst: screen , blending: true } ) ;
		screen.draw() ;
    }
) ;

There is a full example of an image viewer located here: ./sample/image-viewer.js in the repository.

ScreenBuffer.attr2object( attrFlags ) / .attr2object( attrFlags )

  • attrFlags integer attributes in the bit flags form

It returns the object form of the attributes from its bit flags form. It exists both as a static method and as an instance method.

ScreenBuffer.object2attr( attrObject ) / .object2attr( attrObject )

  • attrObject Object attributes in the object form

It returns the bit flags form of the attributes from its object form. It exists both as a static method and as an instance method.

ScreenBuffer.loadSync( filepath )

  • filepath string the path of a screenBuffer file to load

This static method loads synchronously a screenBuffer file and returns a ScreenBuffer instance.

.dst

This property contains a Terminal or ScreenBuffer instance, that is the destination to write on.

.x , .y

Those properties are respectively the x and the y coordinate, in the dst (destination), where the screenBuffer should be drawn. This can be overriden when invoking .draw().

.blending

A boolean, the is default value for .draw()'s blending option. If true, blending is enabled (e.g. background transparency, char transparency, etc).

.fill( [options] )

  • options Object (optional), where:
    • attr Object or integer (optional) attributes of the chars (attribute object or bit flags, see: the attribute object) (default to the default attributes)
    • char string (optional) a single character used to fill the buffer (default: the space character)
    • region: Object or Rect (optional), a Rect compliant object defining the region to fill (default: fill the whole ScreenBuffer)

It fills the screenBuffer with the specified char and attributes. If the region is specified, then only that region will be filled.

.clear()

It clears the screenBuffer, this is like calling .fill() with no argument.

.put( options , text ) or .put( options , format , [arg1] , [arg2] , ... )

  • options Object, where:
    • x integer (optional) x-coordinate where to put the text, bypassing the cursor x-coordinate
    • y integer (optional) y-coordinate where to put the text, bypassing the cursor y-coordinate
    • markup boolean or 'ansi' (optional) true if the text contains markup that should be interpreted, 'ansi' if it contains ANSI code
    • attr Object or integer (optional) attributes of the chars (attribute object or bit flags, see: the attribute object)
    • wrap boolean (optional) if true, text wrapping is enabled: when the cursor move beyond the last column, it is moved to the begining of the next line
    • newLine: boolean (optional) if true, then \r and \n produce new lines, false by default: .put() does not manage lines
    • clip: object (optional) if set, it defines the clipping area, nothing is written outside of it, and if the 'wrap' option is set, wrapping is done on its boundary. Properties:
      • x
      • y
      • width
      • height
    • clipChar: string (optional) a single char used when the text will be clipped, e.g.: '…'
    • direction string (optional) the direction where the cursor move after each char, one of:
      • 'right' (default)
      • 'left'
      • 'up'
      • 'down'
      • 'none'/null: do not move after puting a char
    • dx integer (optional) x-coordinate increment of the cursor after each character (default: 1), allow more precise controle than the direction option
    • dy integer (optional) y-coordinate increment after each character (default: 0), allow more precise controle than the direction option
  • text string the string to put into the screenBuffer
  • format string the formated string to put into the screenBuffer (works just like any other term( format , args... ))
  • arg1 (optional) the first argument of the format
  • arg2...
  • ...

It puts some text into the screenBuffer, using the provided attributes.

For the markup option, see also the full style markup reference.

.get( [options] )

  • options Object (optional), where:
    • x integer (optional) x-coordinate of the cell to get, bypassing the cursor x-coordinate
    • y integer (optional) y-coordinate of the cell to get, bypassing the cursor y-coordinate

It gets the character and attributes of the cell the screenBuffer's cursor is at, or the cell for the supplied x and y coordinate. It returns an object, where:

  • char string a single character string, the character at that cell
  • attr Object the attribute object for this cell, see: the attribute object

.resize( fromRect )

  • fromRect Object or Rect the rectangle used to resize the buffer, if it is an object, it should contains properties needed by the Rect's contructor, namely either:

    • width integer the width of the rectangle
    • height integer the height of the rectangle
    • x integer (optional, default to the left-most x-coordinate) the minimum x-coordinate of the rectangle
    • y integer (optional, default to the top-most y-coordinate) the minimum y-coordinate of the rectangle

    or:

    • xmin integer the minimum x-coordinate of the rectangle
    • xmax integer the maximum x-coordinate of the rectangle (included)
    • ymin integer the minimum y-coordinate of the rectangle
    • ymax integer the maximum y-coordinate of the rectangle (included)

This resizes the screenBuffer.

If only the width and the height is given, the screenBuffer will shrink/enlarge from its right-side and bottom-side. With the four properties, it is possible to define where the current screenBuffer content will land after the resize.

.draw( [options] )

  • options Object (optional) if provided, each defined option will override the default behavior. Available options are:
    • dst Terminal or ScreenBuffer (optional) override screenBuffer.dst
    • x integer (optional) override screenBuffer.x
    • y integer (optional) override screenBuffer.y
    • srcClipRect Rect (optional, default: the whole source region is used) the source clipping rectangle
    • dstClipRect Rect (optional, default: the whole destination region is used) the destination clipping rectangle
    • blending boolean (optional, default: false) if true blending (transparencies) is allowed, also if dst is a terminal, partial transparency does not work
    • delta boolean (optional, default: false) if true and if the destination is a terminal, only the cells that have changed since the last draw will be updated: it will keep performance of terminal application high
    • wrap boolean or string (optional, default: false) if set, wrapping will be enabled, it can be set to:
      • 'x': only wrap along the x-axis
      • 'y': only wrap along the y-axis
      • true, 'both': wrap along the x and y axis
      • false: no wrapping
    • tile boolean (optional, default: false) if true, the source will fill the destination entirely using tiling: the source is repeated multiple times along the x and y axis.

This draws the current screenBuffer into its dst (destination), which is either a Terminal or another ScreenBuffer instance.

Blending works only when drawing to another screenBuffer.

.drawCursor( [options] )

  • options Object (optional) if provided, each defined option will override the default behavior. Available options are:
    • dst Terminal or ScreenBuffer (optional) override screenBuffer.dst

This draws the current screenBuffer's cursor into its dst (destination), which is either a Terminal or another ScreenBuffer instance. Drawing the cursor means that the destination's cursor is moved to the coordinate of the source's cursor.

This method is useful if the screenBuffer is (for example) a widget that receive user input: the user must know where he is typing.

.moveTo( x , y )

  • x integer new cursor x-coordinate
  • y integer new cursor y-coordinate

It moves the screenBuffer's cursor.

.vScroll( lineOffset , [attr] , [ymin] , [ymax] , [scrollTerminal] ) or .vScroll( offset , [scrollTerminal] )

  • lineOffset integer the vertical offset (the number of lines), positive values move the content toward crescent y coordinates, thus move the content down, negative values move the content up.
  • attr Object or integer attributes of inserted empty lines (attribute object or bit flags, see: the attribute object)
  • scrollTerminal boolean (optional, default: false) if true AND if the screenBuffer's dst is a Terminal instance, it will scroll the underlying terminal, see details below.

This scrolls the screenBuffer's content vertically.

If scrollTerminal option is set AND if the screenBuffer's dst is a Terminal instance, then the following happens:

  • the dst terminal is issued a .scrollingRegion() with the screenBuffer vertical bounds
  • the dst terminal is issued a .scrollDown() or a .scrollUp() depending on the lineOffset sign
  • the internal buffer storing last draw's data is updated, so the next call to .draw() with the delta option on will not redraw the region that has scrolled unless it has changed again
  • the dst terminal is issued a .resetScrollingRegion()

This option has one big limitation: the screenBuffer should cover the whole terminal's width, because terminals only supports full-width scrolling region. You may avoid using this option for thinner screenBuffers, because things lying to the left or to the right would be scrolled too.

Also note that it doesn't draw the screenBuffer to the terminal, but it the internal delta is maintained properly.

.dumpChars()

Returns a string containing a dump of the screenBuffer's characters. Mostly useful for debugging purpose.

.dump()

Returns a string containing a dump of the screenBuffer, including attributes. Mostly useful for debugging purpose, but will likely gives you a headache.

.saveSync( filepath )

  • filepath string the path of the file to write the screenBuffer

This saves synchronously the screenBuffer to a file.

The Attributes Object

An attributes object contains attributes to style cells. Available attributes are:

  • color integer or string the foreground color index (ranging from 0 to 255) or the color name
  • defaultColor boolean if true, set the foreground color to the default terminal foreground color
  • bgColor integer or string the background color index (ranging from 0 to 255) or the color name
  • bgDefaultColor boolean if true, set the background color to the default terminal background color
  • bold boolean
  • dim boolean
  • italic boolean
  • underline boolean
  • blink boolean (note: most terminal does not support it)
  • inverse boolean
  • hidden boolean
  • strike boolean
  • transparency boolean if true, all transparencies are activated
  • fgTransparency boolean foreground color transparency, anything drawn with that attribute will use the existing destination's foreground color instead of its own foreground color
  • bgTransparency boolean background color transparency, anything drawn with that attribute will use the existing destination's background color instead of its own background color
  • styleTransparency boolean style transparency, anything drawn with that attribute will use the existing destination's style instead of its own style. Styles cover the bold, dim, italic, underline, blink, inverse, hidden and strike attributes.
  • charTransparency boolean character transparency, anything drawn with that attribute will use the existing destination's character instead of its own character

Transparency can achieve some special FX, like making a colorful rectangle moving behind some text.