A much better alternative to this would be to for more terminal emulators to implement overstrike mode (DECSET 20, as available on the VK100). That way you could just draw border characters over existing text cells to achieve the same thing.
Unfortunately mintty is the only terminal emulator I'm aware of which supports overstrike [0], as this would open up a world of new possibilities for TUI apps if more widely supported.
I love this work and everything else Ratatui does but I have to ask: if you're changing the terminal protocol and the terminal itself to do this, why not do something more ambitious; a full monospaced information-dense UI framework, a terminal designed for user interfaces, rather than one designed to replicate the limitations of dumb terminals?
I appreciate the innovation happening with TUIs in these modern times. But, aesthetically, I have to say, I like my borders to have some breathing room, which gets lost in this particular treatment.
Unfortunately mintty is the only terminal emulator I'm aware of which supports overstrike [0], as this would open up a world of new possibilities for TUI apps if more widely supported.
[0] https://github.com/mintty/mintty/wiki/CtrlSeqs#overstrike
> instead of hacks on top of hacks
Afraid that’s a contradiction. HTML is a pile of hacks upon hacks that was not originally intended for UIs.
But, yeah, people are trying to reinvent GUIs. By layering hacks over TTYs.