[TxMt] Re: Indent size different from tab size
Lists In@IDC
listsin at integrateddevcorp.com
Thu Nov 9 03:47:31 UTC 2006
On Nov 8, 2006, at 10:41 PM, Jacob Rus wrote:
> Let me clarify...
>
> Jacob Rus wrote:
>> Curt Sampson wrote:
>>> It's not just emacs; this is very common in vi as well. [...]
>>>
>>> 1. There's no standard for carrying the tab size around with the
>>> file. Given any file, there's no way to tell if it uses 8 or 4
>>> column tabs without manually inspecting it. [...]
>
> This is an argument against using tabs at all
>
>>> In this situation, if you're not using the original coders [sic]
>>> tab size, you end up with the stuff at the right-hand not lining up.
>
> This is also an argument against using tabs
>
>> Ok, fine. Changing tab size could be bad, if someone still is
>> using some random editor no one has ever heard of, which can't
>> handle any tab size other than 8. So what's the benefit to coding
>> like this instead of just using spaces? Is it just saving a few
>> bytes?
>
> To clarify my statement, so there are no ruffled feathers: Every
> editor worth its salt can interpret tabs to be any desired size.
> This includes bbedit, emacs, vim, and textmate. But emacs (and
> apparently vim) want to do this odd dance where you use 4-space
> tabs, but replace pairs of them with literal tab characters to save
> 7 bytes. This just seems absurd to me. Can you give any rational
> explanation why anyone would want to do this?
Back in the old days, saving 7 bytes was even more significant than
those two bytes you saved by not storing the year on dates (pre-Y2K).
God I feel old sometimes...
S
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