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Future Feature Ideas

Potential additions to the Esc terminal styling library.

Input Components

  • TextInput - Single-line text input with cursor navigation, input history, and validation support.
  • Password - Masked input field with optional reveal toggle for password entry.
  • TextArea - Multi-line text editor with line numbers, scrolling, and basic editing commands.
  • NumberInput - Numeric input with increment/decrement (arrow keys), min/max bounds, and step size.

Progress & Status

  • ProgressBar - Determinate progress indicator with percentage display, ETA calculation, and customizable bar characters.
  • Spinner - Indeterminate loading indicator with multiple animation styles (dots, braille, arrows, bounce). spec | plan
  • Stepper - Multi-step wizard indicator showing current position (e.g., "Step 2 of 5") with completion states.

Feedback & Alerts

  • Toast - Temporary notification messages that auto-dismiss, positioned at screen edges.
  • Alert - Styled message boxes for info, success, warning, and error states with icons and borders.
  • Confirm - Yes/No confirmation dialog with keyboard navigation and customizable button labels.
  • Badge - Small inline status indicators for counts, states, or labels.

Data Display

  • Syntax - Code and JSON syntax highlighting with theme-aware colors.
  • Diff - Side-by-side or unified diff viewer for comparing text/code changes.
  • KeyValue - Aligned key-value pair display (like git config --list output).
  • Sparkline - Inline mini charts using block characters (▁▂▃▅▇) for quick data visualization.
  • Chart - Multi-line series plotting for visualizing trends, time series, or comparing datasets.
  • Canvas - Free-form drawing surface for placing characters at arbitrary x,y positions.

Layout

  • Columns - Side-by-side content layout with configurable widths and gutters.
  • Row/Column DSL - Declarative grid layout system (like Ratatouille's row/column elements).
  • Divider - Horizontal and vertical separators with optional centered labels.
  • Panel / Card - Bordered content containers with headers, footers, and padding.
  • Tabs - Tabbed content switching with keyboard navigation between panes.
  • Overlay - Floating content layer for modals, dialogs, and popups positioned over other content.

Navigation

  • Breadcrumbs - Path or hierarchy display with separators (Home > Projects > Esc).
  • Pagination - Page controls for navigating large datasets with page size options. spec | plan
  • CommandPalette - Fuzzy-searchable command menu (like VS Code's Ctrl+Shift+P) for action discovery.
  • StatusBar - Horizontal bar for displaying status, hints, or menu items at top/bottom of screen.

Advanced Select

  • Autocomplete - Text input with dropdown suggestions that filter as you type.
  • CascadingSelect - Dependent dropdowns where selection in one updates options in the next (Country → State → City).
  • TreeSelect - Hierarchical selection with expand/collapse nodes for nested data.

Utility

  • KeyboardHints - Display available keyboard shortcuts contextually (like vim's which-key plugin).
  • FuzzyFilter - Add fuzzy matching option to existing filter mode (beyond glob patterns).
  • Scrollable - Wrapper component for scrolling long content with visual scrollbar indicator.

Out of Scope

ESC is a styling library, not a full TUI framework. The following features (found in frameworks like Ratatouille) are intentionally out of scope:

  • Runtime/App - TEA application loops with init/update/render callbacks
  • Events - Continuous keyboard, mouse, and resize event handling
  • Subscriptions - Recurring event streams for animations or polling
  • Commands - Async operation dispatching with callbacks

For full TUI applications, use a dedicated framework like Ratatouille or build on top of ex_termbox directly.

Priority Candidates

Components that would provide the most value:

  • TextInput - Foundation for many other features
  • ProgressBar / Spinner - Common need for CLI apps
  • Confirm - Essential for destructive actions
  • Autocomplete - High-value interactive component
  • Syntax - Useful for dev tools