Here is a suggestion for playlist column mode in the core:

* core should return a list of columns according to the format string
* UI will add these columns into the listview
* TextOutColorsTabbed should take column widths and order as a parameters
(colmns order and widths are taken from the listview)
* without these parameters will make TextOutColorsTabbed same output as today

* there can be optionally a function returning default column widths for the format string and window size

I hope it is enough to implement often requested 'column mode'.

Why do you need core support for that? All those features really seem plugin specific and I'd rather implement them in UI plugin...

I don't think it is 100% UI plugin specific because TextOut.... functions are already in the 'core'. It would be implemented in utf8api.dll because it will save a lot of work.

Or you could put a little more work into your list view renderer. Tip: Rendering to an off-screen bitmap is faster.

I know about it, anyway this functionality will preserve compatibility with format strings (which would be good).
There are many possible 'columns' which are based on tags and technical infos, so UI makers would still update component to keep in touch with newly supported tags, infos etc. Formating strings make it more easier.
I beleive it is not so difficult to implement it inside utf8api.dll because TextOut... functions already work with 'columns'.

Yeah, maybe.

But I really wouldn't count on that. The worst (IMO) part is already done - you have quite powerful methods to format string and function to render it on any device context. The rest is your job and don't expect someone will just do it for you

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is there some helper to parse format string (and get columns)?

No. Also, if you have a fixed number of columns (I believe you have), you should IMHO not use tab chars to split the format string into parts after titleformatting as that may yield a varying number of tab chars.

that's why I'd like to have support in utf8api.dll (but nobody seems to do it)

The source is available, have at it.