Hey guys, I'm using the `drawBehind` modifier, which doesn't provide a Composable scope. However I n...

# compose-desktop

[adte]

Hey guys, I'm using the drawBehind modifier, which doesn't provide a Composable scope. However I need a composable scope in order to use rememberTextMeasurer in drawText. How can I do that?

[Loney Chou]

remember it in a composable, then use it in drawBehind. If you don't have one, wrap it with Modifier.composed.

[adte]

@Loney Chou Ah, I see thank you. It's annoying to have to pass text measurer instance into all my drawing functions, though 😕

[efemoney]

That is what Modifier.composed is for

[ephemient]

or use drawWithCache

[ephemient]

e.g. this will effectively "remember" the TextMeasurer across draw calls:

val fontFamilyResolver = LocalFontFamilyResolver.current
Modifier
    .drawWithCache {
        val textMeasurer = TextMeasurer(fontFamilyResolver, this, layoutDirection)
        onDrawBehind {
            drawText(textMeasurer, "Hello, world!")
        }
    }

I suppose it doesn't really have a benefit over rememberTextMeasurer() outside, though

[Zach Klippenstein (he/him) [MOD]]

@Halil Ozercan Maybe we need a sibling to rememberTextMeasurer that can be used from Modifier.Node?

[Halil Ozercan]

This was discussed the first time around we were designing the TextMeasurer. The best approach is to be able to instantiate a TextMeasurer solely from drawWithCache scope. Now that we have the ability to read locals (LocalFontFamilyResolver) in Modifier.Node, there should be nothing stopping us from doing that.

[Zach Klippenstein (he/him) [MOD]]

What if it’s also needed from a layout modifier, like for the BTF2 use case?

[efemoney]

@Halil Ozercan reading Locals from node is not implemented in any released version right? Is there an open PR or something I can look at to see more details

[Halil Ozercan]

@efemoney https://android-review.googlesource.com/c/platform/frameworks/support/+/2318839

[efemoney]

Amazing! Is this making it into 1.4? (pls say yes black 😅)

[Halil Ozercan]

@Andrew Bailey This was merged right after API freeze was lifted so I'm gonna assume it's part of 1.5 track?

[Andrew Bailey]

Yes. It's going in as part of 1.5