Crate screen_printer
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Screen Printer
Screen Printer is a Rust crate that will allow you to build and print arrays of data into a grid format.
The purpose of this crate is to make it easier to print rectangular blocks of text to the terminal. Including features like:
DynamicPrint
, which only prints any characters that changed from any previously printed grid*.PrintingPosition
, which allows you to print your string to different places on the terminal, such as the center.
* If the grid changes in size or position it is reprinted in its entirety.
Examples
Using the dynamic print method to print a grid
The core part of this crate is the dynamic_print
method for the Printer
.
This will take a rectangular grid of characters and print only the parts of the grid that have changed since the last print.
use screen_printer::printer::*;
const WIDTH: usize = 3;
const HEIGHT: usize = 3;
fn main() {
print!("\u{1b}[2J"); // Clear all text on the terminal
// The default printing position is the bottom left of the terminal
let mut printer = Printer::new_with_printing_position(PrintingPosition::default());
// Create the first grid to be printed.
let grid_1 = "abc\n123\nxyz".to_string();
// print the first grid.
printer.dynamic_print(grid_1).unwrap();
// Wait before printing the second grid.
std::thread::sleep(std::time::Duration::from_millis(500));
// Create the second grid to be printed.
let grid_2 = "abc\n789\nxyz".to_string();
// Print the second grid.
// This will only end up printing the difference between the two grids/
printer.dynamic_print(grid_2).unwrap();
}
This will result in:
abc
123
xyz
Into
abc
789 < only line that was actually printed
xyz
Printing Position
Another feature shown in the above example, the PrintingPosition
.
This will print the grid in any of the 9 defined positions on the terminal. These are split by the X and Y axes:
- Left/Top,
- Middle, and
- Right/Bottom.
What is a “rectangular grid”?
A grid is referring to a “grid” of characters, AKA a string with rows and columns. Each row of the “grid” would be sets of characters separated by newlines. Each column would be an individual character between the newlines.
A 3x2 “grid” would be something like: "xxx\nxxx"
Each x
on either side of the \n
is like a column and the \n
separates each row.
For a grid to “not be rectangular” would mean that a row has a differing amount of characters from every other,
like so: "xx\nxxx"