Add `editor.contentLeftPadding` to add padding between the `editorGutter` and `editor`.

Note: Please see BOTH screenshots below and also TWO possible solutions at the end!

Please add some option like editor.contentLeftPadding or whatever you want to name it, to resolve at least these two issues:

1. Currently in VS Code, the gutter and the code editor are so close that while clicking in the beginning of a line one can accidentally click on collapse button in the gutter region which sometimes really bother the user.

2. When a user apply a different background color to gutter for either theming purpose or to show that it’s not part of the editor region, the code in the editor and also the vertical lines between the first pair of curly braces of code blocks basically touch the gutter. See the following first screenshot.

If we had editor.contentLeftPadding then the user could just add that to settings.json like this:

"workbench.colorCustomizations": {
        "editor.contentLeftPadding": 8px;
        "editorGutter.background" : "#454545",
    },

which could separate code from the gutter and look like this:

There are two ways to solve this issue:

1. Adding editor.contentLeftPadding setting. It will not create any changes to VS Code by default as it would take effect only when the user use this setting, hence, those users who are used to the current user interface of the VS Code will not notice this change.
2. However, if a little padding is added by default in the VS Code , it will not be much noticeable to those users who are used to the current look and feel of the user interface while resolving the above mentioned issues at the same time!

As VS Code doesn’t allow users to add custom CSS in it so a setting like editor.contentLeftPadding or built-in default padding for editor’s content is required.

If built-in default padding is added to VS Code then a setting to remove that built-in default padding can also be added so that the user can remove it if the user doesn’t like it, just like the following settings to remove folding, glyphMargin and lineNumbers:

"editor.folding": false,
"editor.glyphMargin": false
"editor.lineNumbers": "off",

Proof of concept Implementation and Observation

For proof of concept, I added the following CSS code to the end of this CSS file /usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.css:

.monaco-editor .lines-content {
    padding-left: 8px;
}

which produces the following neat and required result, such that, now neither I can’t accidentally click on folding buttons nor the code touches the gutter:

But I noticed that unlike HTML textarea tag which allows a user to click in the padding area to place cursor at the start of the nearest line no matter how wide padding you set, in VS Code I can’t place the cursor at the start of the line by clicking in the padding region which might be desirable by some users.

My VS Code settings.json:

The following are the settings for those who wonder what settings I have for the colors of gutter, tabs and breadcrumb of my VS Code. Note that these color settings look best with Dart+(default dark) theme.

{
    // Look best with "Dart+(default dark)" theme.
    "workbench.colorCustomizations": {
        "editorGutter.background" : "#454545",

        "editorGroupHeader.tabsBackground": "#454545",        
        "tab.inactiveBackground":  "#454545",

        "tab.activeBackground": "#5b5b5b",
        "breadcrumb.background": "#5b5b5b",     
    },
}

[mckeed]

There are already settings for editor.padding.top and editor.padding.bottom, so the setting should be editor.padding.left and should result in the same amount of spacing as those do.

[shujaatak]

@alexdima @bpasero Waiting for a year and counting 🥱