Textarea

Multi-line text input. It collects a string that may contain newlines.

$p->textarea('notes', 'Tasting notes')
  ->default("Crisp and sweet\nHint of citrus") // Initial value (newlines allowed).
  ->externalEditor();                          // Allow a handoff to $EDITOR / $VISUAL.

Runnable script: playground/02-widgets-textarea.php.

Options

Name	Description	Required	Default
default()	Initial value; may contain newlines.	No	'' (empty)
externalEditor()	Allow a handoff to the reader's $EDITOR / $VISUAL.	No	Off

With externalEditor() on, Ctrl-E suspends the TUI, opens the editor seeded with the current value, and captures the saved buffer on return: saving commits it, and an aborted edit (a non-zero editor exit) keeps the inline value. With no editor available, the option is silently ignored and the field stays a plain inline textarea.

Keyboard

Key	Action
printable keys	Insert at the caret
Enter	Insert a newline
Tab	Accept (note: Enter adds a line, it does not accept)
↑ / ↓	Move between lines, keeping the column
← / →	Move the caret
Backspace	Delete the character before the caret
Ctrl-E	Open the external editor (when enabled)
Esc	Cancel

Display modes

In all four display modes - Unicode or ASCII, color on or off:

	ANSI	No ANSI
Unicode
ASCII