XOM API for Processing XML with Java

[Alex Blewitt <alex_blewitt AT yahoo.com>]

Personally, I think that the whole tabs issue has been
somewhat overrated based on problems in the past in
mixing tabs and spaces in the same file.

There are problems when both can be mixed, because
you're never sure what the exact conversion rate
between tabs and spaces is. As a result, a file with
mixed tab/space content can be misleading, and hence
some of the problems arise from the fact that there is
mixed cntent.

However, if a file is indented with entirely tabs or
entirely spaces, this problem does not arise. It is
just as much a problem with using spaces in a mixed
content as the tabs are.

Furthermore, the whole point of the tab is to say
'indent here'. I mean, come on -- when writing books,
your publisher would be pretty horrified if at the
start of each paragraph you began it with
'space''space''space', or for quotations providing
indentation. And yet this is a perfectly acceptable
solution for source code?

A tab means indent. Nothing more, nothing less. Where
it indents to precisely is a matter for the viewer
(or, in the case of archaic typewriters, where the
next tab stop is). Indeed, one of the flexibilities of
using tabs is that it's up to the viewer where the
indentations look, as opposed to spaces (in which case
it's up to the person writing the document where the
indentations look.

Michael is wrong to say that a tab means 'a number of
spaces'. It doesn't. It's a gap. It doesn't even have
to be represented as an integer number of spaces at
all; it could be every 1", for example.

Lastly, tabs can be set to be the same size
independent of font size or style. Spaces always
follow the font size or style that you're working
with.

Alex.

--- "John.Cowan" <jcowan AT reutershealth.com> wrote:

> Michael Kay scripsit:
> 
> > Elliotte is right, as usual. The effect of a tab
> is context dependent, which
> > makes it very unmanageable. 
> 
> Indeed it is context-dependent, which can be either
> good or bad, depending
> on the wider context.  If you want everyone to see
> the same indentation,
> spaces are better; if you want people to be able to
> choose the indentation,
> tabs are better.
> 
> (It's quite true that using tabs as field delimiters
> in data files is a
> Bad Thing, because it's easy to get confused about
> how many tab characters
> are present when editing such files with a general
> text editor.)
> 
> > It was a really bad idea to allow tabs to be
> stored in files at all -
> > a tab was originally a key on a keyboard that
> caused a number of spaces
> > to appear in the document, and it should have
> stayed that way.
> 
> You are speaking of typewriters?
> 
> In any case, the issue is moot; the standard
> "unexpand" utility will
> convert runs of spaces to tabs, and allows you to
> set a particular
> tab width, or even an arbitrary set of tab stops (as
> on a typewriter).
> The converse utility "expand" converts tabs to runs
> of spaces.
> 
> -- 
> Verbogeny is one of the pleasurettes    John Cowan
> <jcowan AT reutershealth.com>
> of a creatific thinkerizer.            
> http://www.reutershealth.com
>    -- Peter da Silva                   
> http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
> 



                
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