visualdynamics.gui.console

console

The console: the session as Python, along the bottom of the window.

A tab on the bottom edge of the views opens and closes it: click it to expand the console and click again to collapse it. It shows project.journal, every verb and settings change of this session as the line of Python that replays it. The text is read-only and can be selected and copied, so a session done in the window can be copied into a script, and a user who does not want the Python never has to open it.

Classes:

Name	Description
ConsolePanel	The scrollback, and the tab that floats over the edge of the

Functions:

Name	Description
elided	A journal line as the console shows it: whole up to

Classes

ConsolePanel

ConsolePanel(parent: QWidget | None = None)

Bases: QWidget

The scrollback, and the tab that floats over the edge of the views.

The panel holds only the scrollback, so collapsed it is zero pixels tall. The tab is not in any layout: float_over places it on the bottom edge of the widget the console expands under, the way a handle sits on a drawer, and moves it when that widget is resized. Qt has nothing built in for this (its tab widgets are document tabs, and the native macOS drawer is deprecated), so the tab is placed by hand.

Methods:

Name	Description
float_over	Place the tab on host's bottom edge, centered, and keep it
refresh	Bring the scrollback up to date with the session's journal.

Attributes:

Name	Type	Description
showing	bool	Whether the scrollback is expanded.

Source code in src/visualdynamics/gui/console.py

def __init__(self, parent: QWidget | None = None) -> None:
    super().__init__(parent)
    # Only the scrollback is in the panel: the first cut reserved a
    # full-width strip for the tab, and the empty strip read as a
    # gray bar across the window (Brandon, 2026-08-31).
    column = QVBoxLayout(self)
    column.setContentsMargins(0, 0, 0, 0)
    column.setSpacing(0)
    self._host: QWidget | None = None

    # A tab, drawn as one: a flared handle centered on the edge with
    # a chevron either side of the word, to the design Brandon had
    # made (2026-09-03) — the first cut was a styled button with a
    # font triangle, and before that a full-width bar that read as
    # a divider (2026-08-31).
    self.tab: DrawerTab = DrawerTab('Console')
    self.tab.setToolTip(
        'This session as Python — every act as the line that '
        'replays it, copyable into a script')
    self.tab.toggled.connect(self._toggled)

    self.view: QPlainTextEdit = QPlainTextEdit()
    self.view.setReadOnly(True)
    self.view.setFont(
        QFontDatabase.systemFont(QFontDatabase.SystemFont.FixedFont))
    self.view.setFixedHeight(CONSOLE_HEIGHT)
    self.view.hide()
    column.addWidget(self.view)

    #: what the scrollback currently shows, compared by value: the
    #: journal edits its own last line when a drag settles, so the
    #: refresh rewrites on any difference rather than appending
    self._shown: tuple[str, ...] = ()
    self._toggled(False)

Attributes

showing property

showing: bool

Whether the scrollback is expanded.

Methods:

float_over

float_over(host: QWidget) -> None

Place the tab on host's bottom edge, centered, and keep it there when host is resized.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
host	QWidget	A plain container that holds the views and this panel; the tab sits on the drawer's top edge like a handle. It must not be a QSplitter, because a splitter makes any child widget a new pane, and the tab would become a third pane at the right edge.	required

Source code in src/visualdynamics/gui/console.py

def float_over(self, host: QWidget) -> None:
    """Place the tab on `host`'s bottom edge, centered, and keep it
    there when `host` is resized.

    Parameters
    ----------
    host : QWidget
        A plain container that holds the views and this panel; the
        tab sits on the drawer's top edge like a handle. It must not
        be a QSplitter, because a splitter makes any child widget a
        new pane, and the tab would become a third pane at the right
        edge.
    """
    self._host = host
    self.tab.setParent(host)
    host.installEventFilter(self)
    self.tab.show()
    self._place_tab()

refresh

refresh(journal: list[str]) -> None

Bring the scrollback up to date with the session's journal.

When nothing changed this is one tuple comparison. When something did, the text is rewritten in full, because the journal may edit its own last line (a drag settles to one line) and a view that only appended would keep the line that was replaced. Lines longer than SHOWN_CHARACTERS are shortened, as elided says.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
journal	list of str	The project's session journal, shown as written.	required

Source code in src/visualdynamics/gui/console.py

def refresh(self, journal: list[str]) -> None:
    """Bring the scrollback up to date with the session's journal.

    When nothing changed this is one tuple comparison. When something
    did, the text is rewritten in full, because the journal may edit
    its own last line (a drag settles to one line) and a view that
    only appended would keep the line that was replaced. Lines longer
    than `SHOWN_CHARACTERS` are shortened, as `elided` says.

    Parameters
    ----------
    journal : list of str
        The project's session journal, shown as written.
    """
    lines = tuple(journal)
    if lines == self._shown:
        return
    self._shown = lines
    # a line is shown whole up to a screenful and elided past it,
    # with its length said: a live edit of a controller's target
    # journals a draft of sixty thousand band pairs, megabytes of
    # text, and rendering that twice per drag was the drag's whole
    # cost (2026-09-06). The journal itself keeps the full line;
    # the session script is where it is read whole
    self.view.setPlainText('\n'.join(elided(line) for line in lines))
    bar = self.view.verticalScrollBar()
    bar.setValue(bar.maximum())

Functions:

elided

elided(line: str) -> str

A journal line as the console shows it: whole up to SHOWN_CHARACTERS characters, and otherwise its first SHOWN_CHARACTERS characters followed by the line's full length.

Source code in src/visualdynamics/gui/console.py

def elided(line: str) -> str:
    """A journal line as the console shows it: whole up to
    `SHOWN_CHARACTERS` characters, and otherwise its first
    `SHOWN_CHARACTERS` characters followed by the line's full length."""
    if len(line) <= SHOWN_CHARACTERS:
        return line
    return (f'{line[:SHOWN_CHARACTERS]} … [{len(line):,} characters; the '
            'session script has the whole line]')