get("#515") -- splitLines

-- each input can be a string or an array of lines
-- result is as string concatenated with \n
function mergeTexts(lines1, lines2)
  if type(lines1) == 'string' then lines1 = splitLines(lines1) end
  if type(lines2) == 'string' then lines2 = splitLines(lines2) end
  
  local n = math.max(#lines1, #lines2)

  local w = 0
  for i=1, #lines1 do
    w = math.max(w, #(lines1[i] or ''))
  end

  local result = {}
  for i=1, n do
    local line1 = lines1[i] or ""
    local line2 = lines2[i] or ""
    table.insert(result, line1..string.rep(" ", w-#line1).." | "..line2)
  end
  return table.concat(result, "\n")
end

Began life as a copy of #513