uutils / uutils/coreutils

`ls`: Consider simplifying column computation (and not use `ansi_width`)

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Description

In #7801, we added some complicated logic to lazily evaluate line length (i.e. ansi_width), but maybe we can simplify that logic instead.

I think we can use the byte offset instead, because we add this byte if it could possibly wrap, so we only need a lower bound on adding it. That should be cheaper to compute than the ansi_width computation.
I can even show that GNU does that. I did this in a terminal that fit the filename easily, but because emojis consist of many bytes, GNU will add the byte:

touch πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€.foo
env TERM=xterm  LS_COLORS="*.foo=0;31;42" TIME_STYLE=+T ls  --color=always πŸ¦€
πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€πŸ¦€.foo

I checked this by piping into bat -A.

Originally posted by @tertsdiepraam in https://github.com/uutils/coreutils/pull/7801#discussion_r2051795120

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Research direction

The issue points to ls column computation and the ansi_width-based logic discussed in #7801; begin by reading that change and locating the current path. Compare the proposed byte-offset approach with the emoji example. Done means simplifying the computation without regressing the illustrated wrapping behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
cli
Issue type
Refactor
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
42/100

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