On December 8, 2003 01:09 pm, Lionel Ulmer wrote:
Just to flame a bit (the lists were a bit quiet lately) : the only sane way to dealing with TABs is when TABs are used properly (ie by an editor that uses them only to go to the current C indenting level and uses spaces for everything that comes after).
(true, they are sort of quiet... time to make some noise! :) )
Well, I beg to differ -- I think *my* method is the only sane way! :)))
Seriously, I have heard the argument with the smart editor before, but I'm afraid it never works out because people sometimes indent using spaces. It simply requires a level of discipline that it's simply too much to expect anyone to follow. Yes, you could argue that the editor should go and automagically replace spaces with tabs where appropriate, but this is still not feasible because a lot of people touch the code, and even the same person touches it using different editors, from different boxes, etc. How are you going to make sure everyone has their editors setup just so (if at all possible!)? Face it, there's no way it can work, especially in an internet-like setting where you simply can not impose such strict environmental constraints on people.
This clearly falls in the "doctor, it hurts when I do that" category. Tab has a standard size, and that is 8. As long as we don't go about changing that for no good reason whatsoever, we wouldn't have any problems.