FreeTDS Development Group

[Steve Langasek <vorlon AT netexpress.net>]

On Wed, Oct 23, 2002 at 10:43:42AM -0400, Lowden, James K wrote:
> I don't see what "the majority of terminals in their default configuration"
> has to do with anything.  Good grief!  I should edit my code according to
> what xterm(1) thinks is a reasonable tabstop?  Please.  

> Tabs are a *feature*.  If we use tabs, for the most part we can set our
> tabstops where we want to and let each see the code with his preferred
> amount of lefthand whitespace.  

> The problem arises when people lean on the spacebar instead of the tab key,
> or use an editor that writes N spaces every time <tab> is pressed.  I've
> always thought the latter was a braindead nonfeature, because it's
> asymmetrical: press <tab> once and you have to press <backspace> N times to
> undo it.  Strictly dopey.  Also, it inevitably leads to off-by-one
> (indentation) errors, because people get it wrong from time to time.  

> I know, there are times when you need to line things up, like when you do
> something like:
> 
>      if (blah giant test
>          || other possibility) {
>         [your code here]
>      }

> which, btw is why God intended tabstops to be at 3. ;)  My assertion is, if
> you do this and it doesn't line up according to the prescribed tabstop --
> currently 5 -- then you did it wrong.  If you like (as I do) something other
> than 5, correctly indented code will look a little wavy in those places.
> That's not such a high price to pay for everyone else's flexibility.  

> For the record, I use 3 for C, 4 for perl, and 8 for SQL.  I'm OK with 4 or
> 5, in the spirit of community.  

God's own tabwidth is four, I tell you.

The nice thing about tabs is that, as long as they're used *consistently*
and *well* (tab to indent code blocks, spaces if things need to be
indented to line up /within/ a code block), they can satisfy everyone
regardless of tabwidth preference.  But if the basic rules aren't
followed, it's certainly more of a mess than if people were just using
spaces. :)

Steve Langasek
postmodern programmer

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