gui-cs.Terminal.Gui/Terminal.Gui/Text

Text Formatting in Terminal.Gui

This directory contains text formatting and processing classes for Terminal.Gui.

Classes

TextFormatter

The main text formatting class that handles:

• Text alignment (horizontal and vertical)
• Text direction support (left-to-right, right-to-left, top-to-bottom, etc.)
• Word wrapping
• Multi-line text support
• HotKey processing
• Wide character (Unicode) support

Known Issues: The current TextFormatter implementation has several architectural problems that are planned to be addressed in a future rewrite:

1. Format/Draw Coupling: The Draw() method does significant formatting work, making FormatAndGetSize() unreliable
2. Performance: Format() is called multiple times during layout operations
3. Complex Alignment: Alignment logic is embedded in drawing code instead of using the Aligner engine
4. Poor Extensibility: Adding new features requires modifying the monolithic class
5. No Interface: Prevents multiple text formatter implementations

See TextFormatter Rewrite Issue for details.

Other Classes

• TextDirection: Enumeration for text direction support
• StringExtensions: Extension methods for string processing
• RuneExtensions: Extension methods for Unicode Rune processing
• NerdFonts: Support for Nerd Fonts icons

Future Plans

A complete rewrite of TextFormatter is planned that will:

• Separate formatting from rendering concerns
• Provide an interface-based architecture for extensibility
• Improve performance with better caching
• Support multiple text formats (HTML, Attributed Text, etc.)
• Use the Aligner engine for proper alignment

This is a major architectural change planned for a future release.