gui-cs.Terminal.Gui/docfx/docs/layout.md

Layout

Terminal.Gui provides a rich system for how View objects are laid out relative to each other. The layout system also defines how coordinates are specified.

Coordinates

• Screen-Relative - Describes the dimensions and characteristics of the underlying terminal. Currently Terminal.Gui only supports applications that run "full-screen", meaning they fill the entire terminal when running. As the user resizes their terminal, the Screen changes size and the applicaiton will be resized to fit. Screen-Relative means an origin (0, 0) at the top-left corner of the terminal. ConsoleDrivers operate exclusively on Screen-Relative coordinates.
• Application.Relative - The dimensions and characteristics of the application. Because only full-screen apps are currently supported, Application is effectively the same as Screen from a layout perspective. Application-Relative currently means an origin (0, 0) at the top-left corner of the terminal. Applicaiton.Top is a View with a top-left corner fixed at the Application.Relative coordinate of (0, 0) and is the size of Screen.
• Frame-Relative - The Frame property of a View is a rectangle that describes the current location and size of the view relative to the Superview's content area. Frame-Relative means a coordinate is relative to the top-left corner of the View in question. View.FrameToScreen () and View.ScreenToFrame () are helper methods for translating a Frame-Relative coordinate to a Screen-Relative coordinate and vice-versa.
• Content-Relative - A rectangle, with an origin of (0, 0) and size (defined by View.ContentSize) where the View's content exists. Content-Relative means a coordinate is relative to the top-left corner of the content, which is always (0,0). View.ContentToScreen () and View.ScreenToContent () are helper methods for translating a Content-Relative coordinate to a Screen-Relative coordinate and vice-versa.
• Viewport-Relative - A Content-Relative rectangle representing the subset of the View's content that is visible to the user. If View.ContentSize is larger than the Viewport, scrolling is enabled. Viewport-Relative means a coordinate that is bound by (0,0) and the size of the inner-rectangle of the View's Padding. The View drawing primitives (e.g. View.Move) take Viewport-Relative coordinates; Move (0, 0) means the Cell in the top-left corner of the inner rectangle of Padding. View.ViewportToScreen () and View.ScreenToViewport () are helper methods for translating a Viewport-Relative coordinate to a Screen-Relative coordinate and vice-versa. To convert a Viewport-Relative coordinate to a Content-Relative coordinate, simply subtract Viewport.X and/or Viewport.Y from the Content-Relative coordinate. To convert a Viewport-Relative coordinate to a Frame-Relative coordinate, subtract the point returned by View.GetViewportOffsetFromFrame.

The Frame

The Frame property of a View is a rectangle that describes the current location and size of the view relative to the Superview's content area. The Frame has a Location and Size. The Location describes the top-left corner of the view relative to the Superview's content area. The Size describes the width and height of the view. The Frame is used to determine where the view is drawn on the screen and is used to calculate the Viewport and ContentSize.

The Content Area

The content area is the area where the view's content is drawn. Content can be any combination of the View.Text property, Subviews, and other content drawn by the View. The View.ContentSize property gets the size of the content area of the view. Content Area refers to the rectangle with a location of 0,0 with a size of ContentSize.

ContentSize tracks the size of the Viewport by default. If ContentSize is set via SetContentSize(), the content area is the provided size. If ContentSize is larger than the Viewport, scrolling is enabled.

The Viewport

The Viewport (View.Viewport) is a rectangle describing the portion of the Content Area that is currently visible to the user. It is a "portal" into the content. The Viewport.Location is relative to the top-left corner of the inner rectangle of View.Padding. If Viewport.Size is the same as View.ContentSize, Viewport.Location will be 0,0.

To enable scrolling call View.SetContentSize() and then set Viewport.Location to positive values. Making Viewport.Location positive moves the Viewport down and to the right in the content.

The View.ViewportSettings property controls how the Viewport is constrained. By default, the ViewportSettings is set to ViewportSettings.None. To enable the viewport to be moved up-and-to-the-left of the content, use ViewportSettings.AllowNegativeX and or ViewportSettings.AllowNegativeY.

The default ViewportSettings also constrains the Viewport to the size of the content, ensuring the right-most column or bottom-most row of the content will always be visible (in v1 the equivalent concept was ScrollBarView.AlwaysKeepContentInViewport). To allow the Viewport to be smaller than the content, set ViewportSettings.AllowXGreaterThanContentWidth and/or ViewportSettings.AllowXGreaterThanContentHeight.

Layout

Terminal.Gui provides a rich system for how views are laid out relative to each other. Computed Layout means the position and size of a View is being computed by the layout engine. Absolute Layout means the position and size of a View has been declared to be an absolute values. The position of a view is set by setting the X and Y properties, which are of time Pos. The size is set via Width and Height, which are of type Dim.

• Computed Layout supports dynamic console apps where UI elements (Views) automatically adjust as the terminal resizes or other Views change size or position. The X, Y, Width, and Height properties are Dim and Pos objects that dynamically update the position of a view.

• Absolute Layout requires specifying coordinates and sizes of Views explicitly, and the View will typically stay in a fixed position and size.

  // Absolute layout using a absoulte values for X, Y, Width, and Height
  var label1 = new Label () { X = 1, Y = 2, Width = 3, Height = 4, Title = "Absolute")
  
  // Computed Layout using Pos and Dim objects for X, Y, Width, and Height
  var label2 = new Label () {
  Title = "Computed",
  X = Pos.Right (otherView),
  Y = Pos.Center (),
  Width = Dim.Fill (),
  Height = Dim.Percent (50)
  };
  

The Frame property is a rectangle that provides the current location and size of the view relative to the View's Superview's Content area.

The View.LayoutStyle property can be used to determine how the View is treated. If the style is Absolute, the X, Y, Width, and Height objects are all absolute values. If the style is Computed, one or more of the X, Y, Width, and Height objects describe a computed value.

The Pos Type

The Pos is the type of View.X and View.Y and supports the following sub-types:

• Absolute position, by passing an integer - Pos.Absolute(n).
• Percentage of the parent's view size - Pos.Percent(percent).
• Anchored from the end of the dimension - Pos.AnchorEnd().
• Centered, using Pos.Center().
• The Pos.Left(otherView), Pos.Top(otherView), Pos.Bottom(otherView), Pos.Right(otherView) positions of another view.
• Aligned (left, right, center, etc...) with other views - Pos.Justify(Justification).

All Pos coordinates are relative to the Superview's content area.

Pos values can be combined using addition or subtraction:

// Set the X coordinate to 10 characters left from the center
view.X = Pos.Center () - 10;
view.Y = Pos.Percent (20);

anotherView.X = AnchorEnd (10);
anotherView.Width = 9;

myView.X = Pos.X (view);
myView.Y = Pos.Bottom (anotherView) + 5;

The Dim Type

The Dim is the type of View.Width and View.Height and supports the following sub-types:

• Absolute size, by passing an integer - Dim.Absolute(n).
• Percentage of the Superview's Content Area - Dim.Percent(percent).
• Fill to the end of the Superview's Content Area - Dim.Fill ().
• Reference the Width or Height of another view - Dim.Width (otherView), Dim.Height (otherView).
• An arbitrary function - Dim.Function(fn)
• Automatic size based on the View's content (either Subviews or Text) - Dim.Auto() - See the DimAuto Deep Dive for more information.

All Dim dimensions are relative to the Superview's content area.

Like, Pos, objects of type Dim can be combined using addition or subtraction, like this:

// Set the Width to be 10 characters less than filling 
// the remaining portion of the screen
view.Width = Dim.Fill () - 10;

view.Height = Dim.Percent(20) - 1;

anotherView.Height = Dim.Height (view) + 1;