Lines

Drawing lines is a common operation when building a UI. In AppCUI there are two methods that cen be used to draw lines (vertical and horizontal) on a surface.

  • use special characters to draw the line (like single lines, double lines, etc) that are designed to be used in this context
  • use a generic character to draw the line

Using special characters to draw lines

The following methods can be used to draw lines on a surface using special characters:

MethodDescription
draw_horizontal_line(...)Draws a horizontal line on the surface. The line will be drawn from left to right.
draw_vertical_line(...)Draws a vertical line on the surface. The line will be drawn from top to bottom.
draw_horizontal_line_with_size(...)Draws a horizontal line on the surface with a specific length. The line will be drawn from left to right, starting from a given point and a width.
draw_vertical_line_with_size(...)Draws a vertical line on the surface with a specific length. The line will be drawn from top to bottom, starting from a given point and a width.
draw_line(...)Draw a line between two points using a specific line type and character attributes

These methods take a parameter line_type that specifies the type of line that will be drawn. The line type can be one of the following values:

ValueCharacters being used
Single─, │, ┌, ┐, └, ┘, ├, ┤, ┬, ┴, ┼
Double═, ║, ╔, ╗, ╚, ╝, ╠, ╣, ╦, ╩, ╬
SingleThick━, ┃, ┏, ┓, ┗, ┛, ┣, ┫, ┳, ┻, ╋
Border▄, ▀, █
Ascii\|, -, +
AsciiRound\|, -, +, \\ , \/
SingleRound╭, ╮, ╯, ╰, ─, │
BrailleBraille characters

Example:

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
use appcui::graphics::{Surface, LineType, CharAttribute, Color};

let mut surface = Surface::new(100, 50);
surface.draw_vertical_line(10, 10, 20, 
                            LineType::Single, 
                            CharAttribute::with_color(Color::White, Color::Black));
}

Using a generic character to draw lines

The following methods can be used to draw lines on a surface using a generic character:

MethodDescription
fill_horizontal_line(...)Fills a horizontal line on the surface. The line will be filled from left to right with a provided Character
fill_vertical_line(...)Fills a vertical line on the surface. The line will be filled from top to bottom with a provided Character
fill_horizontal_line_with_size(...)Fills a horizontal line on the surface with a specific length. The line will be filled from left to right with a provided Character
fill_vertical_line_with_size(...)Fills a vertical line on the surface with a specific length. The line will be filled from top to bottom with a provided Character
fill_line(...)FIlls a line between two points with a given Character

Example:

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
use appcui::graphics::{Surface, CharAttribute, Color, Character};

let mut surface = Surface::new(100, 50);
let c = Character::new('=', Color::White, Color::Black, CharFlags::None);
surface.fill_horizontal_line(10, 10, 20, c);
}