Messages in this thread | | | Date | Thu, 28 Feb 2008 21:09:52 +0100 | From | Richard Knutsson <> | Subject | Re: [PATCH] CodingStyle: multiple updates |
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SL Baur wrote: > On 2/27/08, Richard Knutsson <ricknu-0@student.ltu.se> wrote: > > >> Actually, I see this as an quite simple question: is tab _the >> indention-marker_? If not, then why the refusal of spaces indents (or mix)? >> > > Because mixing spaces and tabs is often ugly. I agree > 8 spaces and a > single tab often do not have the same width when you're viewing > the text in a variable width font. > > I've read all my mail in a variable width font for over a decade, at > first to watch for regressions in the XEmacs display engine, but I > continued because I liked it. I presume I'm not the only one doing > so. > > Did not think anyone would read code with variable-sized font. :) In such case the 80-rule is of little use when it comes to readability.
But do you not think there is people with small screens (and perhaps an increasing number with the use of PDAs and smartphones), who would like to change the tab-size to fit a small window (recall someone talking about a 62 character wide screen), where a change from 8 to 2 gains 18 characters in just 3 levels. In those cases, an only-used-as-indent-character is most preferable.
Of course, there is little point in patching existing tab-alignments, but even less creating them, which checkpatch.pl like to do sometime, with its "tabs not spaces".
cheers Richard Knutsson
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