Styling the caret (not just colour)

[gbmhunter]

When using a TextFlow node, I was able to simulate a blinking "terminal" (insert, block-shaped) style caret by adding a Text object as follows:

    caretText = new Text("█");
    caretText.setFill(Color.LIME);

    // Add an animation so the caret blinks
    FadeTransition ft = new FadeTransition(Duration.millis(200), caretText);
    ft.setFromValue(1.0);
    ft.setToValue(0.1);
    ft.setCycleCount(Timeline.INDEFINITE);
    ft.setAutoReverse(true);
    ft.play();

    textFlow.getChildren().add(caretText)

This produced the blinking caret as seen in the demo image on the page: http://mbedded-ninja.github.io/NinjaTerm/

Is there any way to get the same functionality with RichTextFX?

[alt-grr]

Try setting -fx-stroke-width on caret in CSS.

[gbmhunter]

Hmmm, that almost works, except it is little high and it collides with the last letter (most likely due to it's center being positioned at the right-most edge of the last letter).

[alt-grr]

Yup, there is no checks for caret width:
https://github.com/TomasMikula/RichTextFX/blob/169967a71709c80a36db825cacd617ce9d622ee8/richtextfx/src/main/java/org/fxmisc/richtext/ParagraphText.java#L83

Allowing custom caret width would be a nice start. Custom caret shapes and positioning (e.g. _-shaped caret under current character for overwrite input mode) would be the best option, but that's a lot of work.

[gbmhunter]

Hmmm I have had a quick look at the code, what are some good pointers to get started with adding some basic functionality around the caret?

[JordanMartinez]

@gbmhunter Are you still interested in taking a look at this?

[gbmhunter]

@JordanMartinez Sorry no not anymore. After diving into the source code for a bit I realised it would be a decent amount of work to get up to speed with the architecture and implement the changes, and opted to go for a JavaFX WebView/HTML textarea approach instead.

[PavelTurk]

Could anyone say if it is possible to set styles for caret using StyleClassedTextArea in 2022. Same problem - I need something like terminal.

[andy-goryachev-oracle]

just a suggestion - you could use Text/TextFlow.rangeShape() to draw the "caret", or at least to determine the geometry.