CodeEditApp / CodeEditApp/CodeEditSourceEditor

✨ Allow configuring a vertical gutter separator

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#378 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
Dominant language
Swift
Stars
719
Forks
160
PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

Description

### Description

Please allow API consumers to configure an optional vertical separator between the line-number gutter and the editor content.

Some editor designs use a thin solid or dashed line beside the line numbers. The separator needs to be drawn by the gutter itself because the gutter width changes as the document's line-number digit count grows. There is currently no public configuration for this, so matching such a design requires maintaining a fork of `GutterView`.

A backward-compatible configuration could keep the separator disabled by default and allow consumers to specify its color and drawing style. The exact API is open to the maintainers' preference.

### Alternatives Considered

- Overlaying a line outside `SourceEditor`. This cannot reliably follow the gutter because its width is managed internally and changes with the number of line-number digits.
- Making internal gutter layout properties public. A configuration option would expose less implementation detail.

### Additional Context

Our current use case is a 1 pt separator using `NSColor.separatorColor` with a `[1, 1]` dash pattern.

No matching open or closed issue was found before filing this request. Observed on current `main` at revision `1fa4d3c`.

### Screenshots

Not included.

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

Research direction

Start by reading GutterView and the surrounding SourceEditor gutter layout and drawing code. Trace how gutter width changes with line-number digits, then define a backward-compatible optional separator with configurable color and drawing style; done means it remains disabled by default and follows the gutter boundary as its width changes.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
macos, swift
Domain
design, desktop-dev
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
68/100

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