[long] Re: [clug] Elastic tabstops

Kim Holburn kim.holburn at gmail.com
Fri Oct 17 10:03:56 GMT 2008


On 2008/Oct/17, at 3:27 AM, Alex Satrapa wrote:
> So all this feature is doing is automating the setting of tab stops  
> for you. Finally computers can do something *at least as well* as a  
> mechanical typewriter.

Yes, that's what I like about it.

> When it comes to working with other people's code - just stick to  
> the whitespace conventions they started with. There's nothing more  
> annoying than having 148 lines of diff for a 148 line file where  
> some idiot[1] decided to replace all tabs with 4 spaces. If you  
> demand compatibility with "cat", "more" and "less", use spaces.  
> Modern programmers use code editors to read and write source code,  
> so using TAB to align text to tab stops is a nicer option.

I always prefer spaces because I often end up having to use odd  
different editors on different machines at different times.  I have  
never liked the fixed 1 tab every fourth column default in many  
editors.  It just messes everything up if you're using the wrong  
editor or if you change to another tabstop number your file looks like  
rubbish suddenly.  I used to program in Occam where a 2 space indent  
was part of the language structure.

As for diff, that's what the -b option is for isn't it?

I'm not sure I like the idea of using proportional fonts for source of  
any sort though but it's not necessary at all really, the elastic tabs  
was all I was interested in.

--
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
Ph: +39 06 855 4294  M: +39 3494957443
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