With a good background contrast, it's easier to have windows stand out from each other. The default config with 0 gap and thin borders make it very hard to see which window is focused.
I use plain i3, with a border color for the focused window and a good contrasting indicator color. I always know what window is focused and where the next window will open.
I have always assumed i3-gaps was just an aesthetic thing. How does the gap let you know what window is focused?
Aesthetics matter in all-day ux. Gaps make content more legible and less fatiguing imho. It looks amazing against a #000 background on oled screens, for example.
I've spent at least the last 6 years removing i3 and installing i3-gaps on all my new machines (and having to comment out gaps in my dotfiles/i3config while I do it). I didn't think I'd ever see this merge. This is awesome!
if the colored gap is left/right of the gap i know the window left/right of the gap is the current one. without gap i would need to look for the other borders to understand which one is focused. i'm sure on a small (<20") screen this problem doesn't exist.
What about the gaps makes it more obvious which window is focused? I would have guessed that the gaps are the same for focused and non-focused windows.
