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.

See View Deep Dive, Arrangement Deep Dive, Scrolling Deep Dive, and Drawing Deep Dive for more.

Lexicon & Taxonomy

[!INCLUDE Layout Lexicon]

Arrangement Modes

See Arrangement Deep Dive for more.

Composition

[!INCLUDE View Composition]

The Content Area

Content Area refers to the rectangle with a location of 0,0 with the size returned by @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.View.GetContentSize*.

The content area is the area where the view's content is drawn. Content can be any combination of the @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.View.Text property, SubViews, and other content drawn by the View. The @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.View.GetContentSize* method gets the size of the content area of the view.

The Content Area size tracks the size of the @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.View.Viewport by default. If the content size is set via @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.View.SetContentSize*, the content area is the provided size. If the content size is larger than the @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.View.Viewport, scrolling is enabled.

The Viewport

The @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.View.Viewport is a rectangle describing the portion of the Content Area that is 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.GetContentSize(), 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.

See the Scrolling Deep Dive for details on how to enable scrolling.

The @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.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 Engine

Terminal.Gui provides a rich system for how views are laid out relative to each other. The position of a view is set by setting the X and Y properties, which are of time @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.Pos. The size is set via Width and Height, which are of type @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.Dim.

var label1 = new Label () { X = 1, Y = 2, Width = 3, Height = 4, Title = "Absolute")

var label2 = new Label () {
    Title = "Computed",
    X = Pos.Right (otherView),
    Y = Pos.Center (),
    Width = Dim.Fill (),
    Height = Dim.Percent (50)
};

@Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.Pos

@Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.Pos is the type of View.X and View.Y and supports the following sub-types:

Absolute position, by passing an integer - @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.Pos.Absolute*.
Percentage of the parent's view size - @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.Pos.Percent(System.Int32)
Anchored from the end of the dimension - @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.Pos.AnchorEnd(System.Int32)
Centered, using @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.Pos.Center*
The @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.Pos.Left, @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.Pos.Right, @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.Pos.Top, and @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.Pos.Bottom tracks the position of another view.
Aligned (left, right, center, etc...) with other views - @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.Pos.Align*
An arbitrary function - @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.Pos.Func*

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;

@Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.Dim

@Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.Dim is the type of View.Width and View.Height and supports the following sub-types:

Automatic size based on the View's content (either SubViews or Text) - @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.Dim.Auto* - See Dim.Auto Deep Dive.
Absolute size, by passing an integer - @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.Dim.Absolute(System.Int32).
Percentage of the SuperView's Content Area - @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.Dim.Percent(System.Int32).
Fill to the end of the SuperView's Content Area - @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.Dim.Fill*.
Reference the Width or Height of another view - @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.Dim.Width(Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.View), @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.Dim.Height(Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.View).
An arbitrary function - @Terminal.Gui.ViewBase.Dim.Func(System.Func{System.Int32}).

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;

classDiagram
    class View {
    }

    View --> Frame : is Rectangle
    View --> Viewport : is Rectangle

    class Border {
    }

    class Adornment {
    }

    class Thickness {
    }


    Margin --> Adornment : is
    Border --> Adornment : is
    Padding --> Adornment : is
    Adornment --> Thickness : has

    View --> Margin : has
    View --> Border : has
    View --> Padding : has

    note for View "Defines location and size relative to SuperView"
    note for Viewport "Defines the visible portion of the Content Area"
    note for Margin "Where Shadows live"
    note for Border "Where Border, Title, and Arrangement controls live"
    note for Padding "Where ScrollBars live"
    note for Thickness "A rectangle where each side can have a width"

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