intuiTUIve gaps: gitui¶

Round 1: gitui¶

examples/git.rs rebuilds gitui, the git TUI, on intuiTUIve with no framework change. It is 2,219 lines (after rustfmt): about 630 are the repository through the git command line (status, per-file diffs, git apply of a hunk or of chosen lines, commit, log, refs, details, branches, stashes, files at HEAD), 180 the file trees, 210 the diff view, and the rest the tabs, panes, popups and keys. Its tests (tests/git.rs, 535 lines, 21 tests) build a repository in the temporary directory with the git command line for each test, isolated from the user's and the system's git configuration, and drive the app headless.

What is there, with gitui's layout, strings, colours and default keys:

• The top bar: Status [1] | Log [2] | Files [3] | Stashing [4] | Stashes [5] over a rule, the repository's path at the right; 1-5, Tab and Shift+Tab switch.
• Status: the Unstaged Changes and Staged Changes trees (60/40) beside the diff (50/50); gitui's status letters and colours (M, +, -, R, !), folders open, single-folder chains folded (a/b/c); the branch (↑1 ↓0 {main}) on the focused list's edge. Enter stages or unstages a file or a whole folder, a stages (unstages) everything, D resets a file after a confirm, i adds it to .gitignore, w moves between the lists, → (or l) to the diff and ← back.
• The diff: gitui's hunk markers (┌, │, └, lit for the cursor's hunk), a line cursor, Shift+↑/↓ to select lines, n/p between hunks; Enter stages (unstages) the hunk, D resets it, s stages (unstages) the selected lines, d resets them (both asked first), y copies them. Partial staging builds a one-hunk patch and runs git apply --cached (--reverse to unstage or reset), the lines left out kept as context or dropped as git add -p does.
• The commit popup (c, only with something staged): 60% x 20% of the screen, {branch} on its top edge, type commit message.., [subject length: N] past 50; Ctrl+D commits, Ctrl+A amends (Commit (Amend), HEAD's message loaded), Ctrl+E hands the terminal to $GIT_EDITOR/core.editor/$VISUAL/$EDITOR on COMMIT_EDITMSG with gitui's comment lines and reads it back without them, Esc closes it and keeps the message.
• Log: hash time author <tag> {local} [remote] subject in gitui's colours and widths, Commit n/N counted from the bottom as gitui does; Enter toggles the details beside it (Info: author, date, committer, sha, tags, subject; the files), → inspects a commit full screen (its details and files, the diff of the selected file), y copies the hash.
• Files: the tree at HEAD and the selected file's text, numbered and highlighted by its extension.
• Stashing: Files to Stash beside the Options box ([x] stash untracked, [_] keep index, u/i), s asks a message and stashes. Stashes: the list; a applies, p pops, D drops (asked), → inspects.
• The branch list (b): a thick-bordered popup, Local | Remote, * on HEAD and ↑ where tracked; Enter checks out (a remote branch as a tracking one), c creates, r renames, D deletes (asked), m merges.
• The key bar (key_hints) and the help (h, Help: all commands, sectioned by pane), errors in gitui's Error box.

Left out: push, pull and fetch (and their progress and credential popups), blame (B), file history (H), tags and remotes popups, log search (f) and marking (Space), compare commits, reword, reset to a commit, checkout of a commit, submodules, the options popup (whitespace and context lines), the fuzzy file finder, and gitui's theme and key config files. gitui's log draws no graph, so the clone has none.

Bespoke, and why: no Widget of its own. Two helpers stand in for what is missing, and are counted as gaps below: titled (a panel whose title follows a signal, as a text layer over its top edge) and the diff's row model (diff_rows and Diff: hunk markers, a range selection, hunk jumps, over list_rows). The git layer is the data source the brief allows (std::process::Command), parsed with rs-rich-ext's diff::git::parse_unified.

New gaps and bugs¶

Friction with the existing APIs¶

• Two sources of focus. Because gitui's pane focus decides what the diff shows, the clone mirrors it in a signal; the framework's focus drives the borders, the app's drives the titles. A click on a pane sets both only because each pane has an on_click.
• Keys that must beat the tree's. Enter on a folder stages it in gitui; the tree toggles it. Each list's wrapper previews_keys() and binds Enter, a, D, i; h (help) is on the root with previews_keys() so the tree's h (to the parent) never runs. → on a leaf bubbling out of the tree to the page's "Diff" binding works as gitui does; on a folder the tree opens it, as gitui does too.
• list_rows and the cursor's hunk. Every row's marker depends on which hunk the cursor is in, so the row closure reads the cursor and every row is made again on each move.
• Copies of a pane for a layout change. The log's two commit lists share log_at, but each keeps its own scroll offset: with the details open the list can show a different first row.
• Help sections come from .name(..), which also names the node for assert_focused and the inspector; gitui's help groups by component and shows a description pane for the selected command.
• handoff_then works well for Ctrl+E, and the headless driver's take_handoff/handed_back made it testable; the app still writes the file, quotes $EDITOR through sh -c, and strips the comments (the files round's cx.edit_text would be all of it).
• bind_when on c keeps Commit out of the bar and the help when nothing is staged, where gitui greys it.

Components that would help¶

Round 2: gitui on round 6¶

The clone is rebuilt on what round 6 added. It is 2,204 lines (from 2,219), and does more than before: gitui's focus-driven layout and its command bar are in, the closed folders stay closed. The tests are 585 lines, 23 tests (from 21); all pass.

What was replaced, and by what¶

Tests changed, each where the component's behaviour is the better one: the key bar's strings (gitui's look); the tree rows (+ notes.md, M lib.rs: the letter first, as gitui); and two key sequences in the staged list (w up for w down), because the selection now stays on the file it was on (staged.txt) when src/lib.rs is staged above it, where the index path stayed on row 0. FileTree.rows are keyed by path. Dropped: J/K as a second selection key (gitui's are Shift+↑/↓).

Still hand-built, and why¶

• titled (a text layer over a panel's top edge). panel_with and title_with follow state, but a panel's title is always Title one glyph in from the corner (┌─ Staged Changes ─); gitui's, as any ratatui Block's, is flush with the corner (┌Staged Changes──). The branch on the lists' edge and the commit popup's {main} and [subject length: N] stay layers too, flush right ({main}┘), for the same reason (add_title_with pads them).
• The title's focus look still reads the app's Focus signal: the panel combines its title with the edge's style, so a focused title is white and an unfocused one bright_black, but gitui's focused title is bold; there is no title.focused style.
• Diff's hunk model (diff_rows, the markers lit for the cursor's hunk, jump for n/p, the hunk lines a range covers): the sectioned list of round 1's "Components that would help".
• The app's Focus signal and the watch that moves the real focus: gitui's focus decides the diff's file and the layout, and w, → and ← set it. on_focus keeps it in step with clicks; focus_within is a read in a handler, not a signal.
• The git layer (~630 lines) and hunk_patch: the plugin gaps of round 1, unchanged.

New gaps¶

Bugs found¶

None blocking. The rounding above is the only surprise.

Components that would help¶