v0.24.0

[orhun]

We are excited to announce the new version of ratatui - a Rust library that's all about cooking up TUIs 🐭

In this version, we've introduced features like window size API, enhanced chart rendering, and more.
The list of *breaking changes* can be found here ⚠️.
Also, we created various tutorials and walkthroughs in Ratatui Book which is available at https://ratatui.rs 🚀

✨ Release highlights: https://ratatui.rs/highlights/v0.24.html

Features

• c6c3f88
  (backend) Implement common traits for WindowSize (#586)

• d077903
  (backend) Backend provides window_size, add Size struct (#276)

  For image (sixel, iTerm2, Kitty...) support that handles graphics in
  terms of `Rect` so that the image area can be included in layouts.
  
  For example: an image is loaded with a known pixel-size, and drawn, but
  the image protocol has no mechanism of knowing the actual cell/character
  area that been drawn on. It is then impossible to skip overdrawing the
  area.
  
  Returning the window size in pixel-width / pixel-height, together with
  columns / rows, it can be possible to account the pixel size of each cell
  / character, and then known the `Rect` of a given image, and also resize
  the image so that it fits exactly in a `Rect`.
  
  Crossterm and termwiz also both return both sizes from one syscall,
  while termion does two.
  
  Add a `Size` struct for the cases where a `Rect`'s `x`/`y` is unused
  (always zero).
  
  `Size` is not "clipped" for `area < u16::max_value()` like `Rect`. This
  is why there are `From` implementations between the two.
  

• 301366c
  (barchart) Render charts smaller than 3 lines (#532)

  The bar values are not shown if the value width is equal the bar width
  and the bar is height is less than one line
  
  Add an internal structure `LabelInfo` which stores the reserved height
  for the labels (0, 1 or 2) and also whether the labels will be shown.
  
  Fixes ratatui-org#513
  

• 32e4619
  (block) Allow custom symbols for borders (#529) [breaking]

  Adds a new `Block::border_set` method that allows the user to specify
  the symbols used for the border.
  
  Added two new border types: `BorderType::QuadrantOutside` and
  `BorderType::QuadrantInside`. These are used to draw borders using the
  unicode quadrant characters (which look like half block "pixels").
  
  ```
  ▛▀▀▜
  ▌  ▐
  ▙▄▄▟
  
  ▗▄▄▖
  ▐  ▌
  ▝▀▀▘
  ```
  Fixes: https://github.com/ratatui-org/ratatui/issues/528
  
  BREAKING CHANGES:
  - BorderType::to_line_set is renamed to to_border_set
  - BorderType::line_symbols is renamed to border_symbols
  

• 4541336
  (canvas) Implement half block marker (#550)

  * feat(canvas): implement half block marker
  
  A useful technique for the terminal is to use half blocks to draw a grid
  of "pixels" on the screen. Because we can set two colors per cell, and
  because terminal cells are about twice as tall as they are wide, we can
  draw a grid of half blocks that looks like a grid of square pixels.
  
  This commit adds a new `HalfBlock` marker that can be used in the Canvas
  widget and the associated HalfBlockGrid.
  
  Also updated demo2 to use the new marker as it looks much nicer.
  
  Adds docs for many of the methods and structs on canvas.
  
  Changes the grid resolution method to return the pixel count
  rather than the index of the last pixel.
  This is an internal detail with no user impact.
  

• be55a5f
  (examples) Add demo2 example (#500)

• 082cbcb
  (frame) Remove generic Backend parameter (#530) [breaking]

  This change simplifies UI code that uses the Frame type. E.g.:
  
  ```rust
  fn draw<B: Backend>(frame: &mut Frame<B>) {
      // ...
  }
  ```
  
  Frame was generic over Backend because it stored a reference to the
  terminal in the field. Instead it now directly stores the viewport area
  and current buffer. These are provided at creation time and are valid
  for the duration of the frame.
  
  BREAKING CHANGE: Frame is no longer generic over Backend. Code that
  accepted a Frame<Backend> will now need to accept a Frame.
  

• d67fa2c
  (line) Add Line::raw constructor (#511)

  * feat(line): add `Line::raw` constructor
  
  There is already `Span::raw` and `Text::raw` methods
  and this commit simply adds `Line::raw` method for symmetry.
  
  Multi-line content is converted to multiple spans with the new line removed
  

• cbf86da
  (rect) Add is_empty() to simplify some common checks (#534)

  - add `Rect::is_empty()` that checks whether either height or width == 0
  - refactored `Rect` into layout/rect.rs from layout.rs. No public API change as
     the module is private and the type is re-exported under the `layout` module.
  

• 15641c8
  (uncategorized) Add buffer_mut method on Frame ✨ (#548)

Bug Fixes

• 638d596
  (layout) Use LruCache for layout cache (#487)

  The layout cache now uses a LruCache with default size set to 16 entries.
  Previously the cache was backed by a HashMap, and was able to grow
  without bounds as a new entry was added for every new combination of
  layout parameters.
  
  - Added a new method (`layout::init_cache(usize)`) that allows the cache
  size to be changed if necessary. This will only have an effect if it is called
  prior to any calls to `layout::split()` as the cache is wrapped in a `OnceLock`
  

• 8d507c4
  (backend) Add feature flag for underline-color (#570)

  Windows 7 doesn't support the underline color attribute, so we need to
  make it optional. This commit adds a feature flag for the underline
  color attribute - it is enabled by default, but can be disabled by
  passing `--no-default-features` to cargo.
  
  We could specically check for Windows 7 and disable the feature flag
  automatically, but I think it's better for this check to be done by the
  crossterm crate, since it's the one that actually knows about the
  underlying terminal.
  
  To disable the feature flag in an application that supports Windows 7,
  add the following to your Cargo.toml:
  
  ```toml
  ratatui = { version = "0.24.0", default-features = false, features = ["crossterm"] }
  ```
  
  Fixes https://github.com/ratatui-org/ratatui/issues/555
  

• c3155a2
  (barchart) Add horizontal labels(#518)

  Labels were missed in the initial implementation of the horizontal
  mode for the BarChart widget. This adds them.
  
  Fixes https://github.com/ratatui-org/ratatui/issues/499
  

• c5ea656
  (barchart) Avoid divide by zero in rendering (#525)

• c9b8e7c
  (barchart) Render value labels with unicode correctly (#515)

  An earlier change introduced a bug where the width of value labels with
  unicode characters was incorrectly using the string length in bytes
  instead of the unicode character count. This reverts the earlier change.
  

• c8ab2d5
  (chart) Use graph style for top line (#462)

  A bug in the rendering caused the top line of the chart to be rendered
  using the style of the chart, instead of the dataset style. This is
  fixed by only setting the style for the width of the text, and not the
  entire row.
  

• 0c7d547
  (docs) Don't fail rustdoc due to termion (#503)

  Windows cannot compile termion, so it is not included in the docs.
  Rustdoc will fail if it cannot find a link, so the docs fail to build
  on windows.
  
  This replaces the link to TermionBackend with one that does not fail
  during checks.
  
  Fixes https://github.com/ratatui-org/ratatui/issues/498
  

• 0c52ff4
  (gauge) Fix gauge widget colors (#572)

  The background colors of the gauge had a workaround for the issue we had
  with VHS / TTYD rendering the background color of the gauge. This
  workaround is no longer necessary in the updated versions of VHS / TTYD.
  
  Fixes https://github.com/ratatui-org/ratatui/issues/501
  

• 11076d0
  (rect) Fix arithmetic overflow edge cases (#543)

  Fixes https://github.com/ratatui-org/ratatui/issues/258
  

• 21303f2
  (rect) Prevent overflow in inner() and area() (#523)

• ebd3680
  (stylize) Add Stylize impl for String (#466) [breaking]

  Although the `Stylize` trait is already implemented for `&str` which
  extends to `String`, it is not implemented for `String` itself. This
  commit adds an impl of Stylize that returns a Span<'static> for `String`
  so that code can call Stylize methods on temporary `String`s.
  
  E.g. the following now compiles instead of failing with a compile error
  about referencing a temporary value:
  
      let s = format!("hello {name}!", "world").red();
  
  BREAKING CHANGE: This may break some code that expects to call Stylize
  methods on `String` values and then use the String value later. This
  will now fail to compile because the String is consumed by set_style
  instead of a slice being created and consumed.
  
  This can be fixed by cloning the `String`. E.g.:
  
      let s = String::from("hello world");
      let line = Line::from(vec![s.red(), s.green()]); // fails to compile
      let line = Line::from(vec![s.clone().red(), s.green()]); // works
  
  Fixes https://discord.com/channels/1070692720437383208/1072907135664529508/1148229700821450833
  

Refactor

• 2fd85af
  (barchart) Simplify internal implementation (#544)

  Replace `remove_invisible_groups_and_bars` with `group_ticks`
  `group_ticks` calculates the visible bar length in ticks. (A cell contains 8 ticks).
  
  It is used for 2 purposes:
  1. to get the bar length in ticks for rendering
  2. since it delivers only the values of the visible bars, If we zip these values
     with the groups and bars, then we will filter out the invisible groups and bars
  

Documentation

• 0c68ebe
  (block) Add documentation to Block (#469)

• 0fe7385
  (gauge) Add docs for Gauge and LineGauge (#514)

• 27c5637
  (readme) Fix links to CONTRIBUTING.md and BREAKING-CHANGES.md (#577)

• 1947c58
  (backend) Improve backend module docs (#489)

• e098731
  (barchart) Add documentation to BarChart (#449)

  Add documentation to the `BarChart` widgets and its sub-modules.
  

• 17797d8
  (canvas) Add support note for Braille marker (#472)

• 3cf0b83
  (color) Document true color support (#477)

  * refactor(style): move Color to separate color mod
  
  * docs(color): document true color support
  

• e5caf17
  (custom_widget) Make button sticky when clicking with mouse (#561)

• ad2dc56
  (examples) Update examples readme (#576)

  remove VHS bug info, tweak colors_rgb image, update some of the instructions. add demo2
  

• b61f65b
  (examples) Update theme to Aardvark Blue (#574)

  This is a nicer theme that makes the colors pop
  

• 61af0d9
  (examples) Make custom widget example into a button (#539)

  The widget also now supports mouse
  

• 6b8725f
  (examples) Add colors_rgb example (#476)

• 5c785b2
  (examples) Move example gifs to github (#460)

  - A new orphan branch named "images" is created to store the example
    images
  

• ca9bcd3
  (examples) Add descriptions and update theme (#460)

  - Use the OceanicMaterial consistently in examples
  

• 080a05b
  (paragraph) Add docs for alignment fn (#467)

• 1e20475
  (stylize) Improve docs for style shorthands (#491)

  The Stylize trait was introduced in 0.22 to make styling less verbose.
  This adds a bunch of documentation comments to the style module and
  types to make this easier to discover.
  

• dd9a8df
  (table) Add documentation for block and header methods of the Table widget (#505)

• 232be80
  (table) Add documentation for Table::new() (#471)

• 3bda372
  (tabs) Add documentation to Tabs (#535)

• 42f8169
  (terminal) Add docs for terminal module (#486)

  - moves the impl Terminal block up to be closer to the type definition
  

• 28e7fd4
  (terminal) Fix doc comment (#452)

• 51fdcbe
  (title) Add documentation to title (#443)

  This adds documentation for Title and Position
  

• d4976d4
  (widgets) Update the list of available widgets (#496)

• 6c7bef8
  (uncategorized) Replace colons with dashes in README.md for consistency (#566)

• 88ae348
  (uncategorized) Update Frame docstring to remove reference to generic backend (#564)

• 089f8ba
  (uncategorized) Add double quotes to instructions for features (#560)

• 346e7b4
  (uncategorized) Add summary to breaking changes (#549)

• 401a7a7
  (uncategorized) Improve clarity in documentation for Frame and Terminal 📚 (#545)

• e35e413
  (uncategorized) Fix terminal comment (#547)

• 8ae4403
  (uncategorized) Fix Terminal docstring (#546)

• 9cfb133
  (uncategorized) Document alpha release process (#542)

  Fixes https://github.com/ratatui-org/ratatui/issues/412
  

• 4548a9b
  (uncategorized) Add BREAKING-CHANGES.md (#538)

  Document the breaking changes in each version. This document is
  manually curated by summarizing the breaking changes in the changelog.
  

• c0991cc
  (uncategorized) Make library and README consistent (#526)

  * docs: make library and README consistent
  
  Generate the bulk of the README from the library documentation, so that
  they are consistent using cargo-rdme.
  
  - Removed the Contributors section, as it is redundant with the github
    contributors list.
  - Removed the info about the other backends and replaced it with a
    pointer to the documentation.
  - add docsrs example, vhs tape and images that will end up in the README
  

• 1414fbc
  (uncategorized) Import prelude::* in doc examples (#490)

  This commit adds `prelude::*` all doc examples and widget::* to those
  that need it. This is done to highlight the use of the prelude and
  simplify the examples.
  
  - Examples in Type and module level comments show all imports and use
    `prelude::*` and `widget::*` where possible.
  - Function level comments hide imports unless there are imports other
    than `prelude::*` and `widget::*`.
  

• 74c5244
  (uncategorized) Add logo and favicon to docs.rs page (#473)

• 927a5d8
  (uncategorized) Fix documentation lint warnings (#450)

• eda2fb7
  (uncategorized) Use ratatui 📚 (#446)

Testing

• ea70bff
  (barchart) Add benchmarks (#455)

• 94af2a2
  (buffer) Allow with_lines to accept Vec<Into> (#494)

  This allows writing unit tests without having to call set_style on the
  expected buffer.
  

Miscellaneous Tasks

• 1278131
  (changelog) Make the scopes lowercase in the changelog (#479)

• 82b40be
  (ci) Improve checking the PR title (#464)

  - Use [`action-semantic-pull-request`](https://github.com/amannn/action-semantic-pull-request)
  - Allow only reading the PR contents
  - Enable merge group
  

• a20bd6a
  (deps) Update lru requirement from 0.11.1 to 0.12.0 (#581)

  Updates the requirements on [lru](https://github.com/jeromefroe/lru-rs) to permit the latest version.
  - [Changelog](https://github.com/jeromefroe/lru-rs/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md)
  - [Commits](https://github.com/jeromefroe/lru-rs/compare/0.11.1...0.12.0)
  
  ---
  updated-dependencies:
  - dependency-name: lru
    dependency-type: direct:production
  ...
  

• 5213f78
  (deps) Bump actions/checkout from 3 to 4 (#580)

  Bumps [actions/checkout](https://github.com/actions/checkout) from 3 to 4.
  - [Release notes](https://github.com/actions/checkout/releases)
  - [Changelog](https://github.com/actions/checkout/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md)
  - [Commits](https://github.com/actions/checkout/compare/v3...v4)
  
  ---
  updated-dependencies:
  - dependency-name: actions/checkout
    dependency-type: direct:production
    update-type: version-update:semver-major
  ...
  

• 6cbdb06
  (examples) Refactor some examples (#578)

  * chore(examples): Simplify timeout calculation with `Duration::saturating_sub`
  

• 12f9291
  (github) Create dependabot.yml (#575)

  * chore: Create dependabot.yml
  
  * Update .github/dependabot.yml
  

• 3a57e76
  (github) Add contact links for issues (#567)

• 5498a88
  (spans) Remove deprecated Spans type (#426)

  The `Spans` type (plural, not singular) was replaced with a more ergonomic `Line` type
  in Ratatui v0.21.0 and marked deprecated byt left for backwards compatibility. This is now
  removed.
  
  - `Line` replaces `Spans`
  - `Buffer::set_line` replaces `Buffer::set_spans`
  

• fbf1a45
  (uncategorized) Simplify constraints (#556)

  Use bare arrays rather than array refs / Vecs for all constraint
  examples.
  

• a7bf4b3
  (uncategorized) Use modern modules syntax (#492)

  Move xxx/mod.rs to xxx.rs
  

• af36282
  (uncategorized) Only run check pr action on pull_request_target events (#485)

• 322e46f
  (uncategorized) Prevent PR merge with do not merge labels ♻️ (#484)

• 983ea7f
  (uncategorized) Fix check for if breaking change label should be added ♻️ (#483)

• 384e616
  (uncategorized) Add a check for if breaking change label should be added ♻️ (#481)

• 5f6aa30
  (uncategorized) Check documentation lint (#454)

• 47ae602
  (uncategorized) Check that PR title matches conventional commit guidelines ♻️ (#459)

• 28c6157
  (uncategorized) Add documentation guidelines (#447)

Continuous Integration

• 343c6cd
  (lint) Move formatting and doc checks first (#465)

  Putting the formatting and doc checks first to ensure that more critical
  errors are caught first (e.g. a conventional commit error or typo should
  not prevent the formatting and doc checks from running).
  

• c95a75c
  (makefile) Remove termion dependency from doc lint (#470)

  Only build termion on non-windows targets
  

• b996102
  (makefile) Add format target (#468)

  - add format target to Makefile.toml that actually fixes the formatting
  - rename fmt target to lint-format
  - rename style-check target to lint-style
  - rename typos target to lint-typos
  - rename check-docs target to lint-docs
  - add section to CONTRIBUTING.md about formatting
  

• 572df75
  (uncategorized) Put commit id first in changelog (#463)

• 878b6fc
  (uncategorized) Ignore benches from code coverage (#461)

Contributors

Thank you so much to everyone that contributed to this release!

Here is the list of contributors who have contributed to ratatui for the first time!

• @aatukaj
• @DreadedHippy
• @marianomarciello
• @HeeillWang
• @tz629
• @hueblu

---

This discussion was created from the release v0.24.0.