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I know it’s a joke but I prefer the tab option. It’s easy to convert tabs to any particular spacing or code point width. It can also vary, if wanted, based on terminal or editor type.
People with worse eyesight can have a wider indentation while those who choose can opt for something more compact
Honestly I always preferred tabs for indentation and spaces for aligning. It doesn't break anyone's experience. And if somebody wants ~~two spaces for~~ a two-space-tab-width for indentation and other people prefer four. That will work just fine.
I hate seeing 2 space indents. Unreadable AF ( to me ). At least this way I can easily work in the same codebase without somebody being annoyed ( except for the crying about the tabs )
Why not tabs for both indentation and alignment? (Actually, I see indentation as just a specific use of alignment.) Word processors have been doing it for decades (and typewriters for over a century!). Surely we can convince our code processors to use user-definable, fixed position tabs instead of relative position "tab = x spaces".
Keeping the [TAB] character in the file then allows everyone the layout they like.
Or has working solo for 40 years fried my brain?
What I mean with tab = x spaces is only visually and not actually ( there will ( obviously) still be a tab character in my preference. Not sure if that was clear.
Because alignment are fixed characters compared to indentation. For indentation the only question is how many characters the next indentation needs to be.
For alignment it is not fixed. As an example of PHP code:
function test(&obj) {
$obj->doSomething()
....->doSomethingElse()
}
The dots would be spaces because in IDEs people generally use a font where every character is equally wide.
If I would tab again instead of spaces it could work out if my tab length display is ( for one or more ) adds up to the width of the variable $obj. If somebody else has a tab width of 2 rather than somebody who has 3. It would only align for one of the two people.
Does make sense? I typed it out after a gym session on my phone.
Additionally. The whole problem is resolved by using spaces for both alignment and indentation. But in the cursor would still jump one space at a time rather than the whole tab ( although there are keyboard shortcuts for jumping words which would jump all of em.
I don't know. Call me old fashioned. I like what I like :/
I can't imagine it would be difficult for an IDE to scale the width of spaces found at the start of a line, to emulate this same customization while still preserving my sanity as a fervent space-indenter. I've never seen an IDE that does this, but it'd be an interesting compromise.
It's not difficult at all, and many editors and IDEs already support this, making the entire point moot. Just do whatever the style guide says. I'm into PHP and Python so for me it's spaces all the way.
How can it tell the difference between spaces used for indentation and spaces used for alignment, if you use the same character for both?
I guess the indention sizer thing knows how the formater works and adjusts accordingly. I can't imagine it would be too much of a problem.
Iirc Jetbrain IDEs has a feature called dynamic tabs/space (or something like that) which uses exclusively tabs until it needs to align something and a tab doesn't fit, so it uses a few spaces instead.
I agree, tabs are better but I have been using spaces for so long I can't even imagine switching to tabs. also I'd have to reformat all my abandoned projects.
Tabs are objectively the better choice as it allows each dev individually to decide tab width in their editors. Spaces in contrast don't allow this same flexibility as they are used for much more than simply indentation, for example you likely put a space after each argument or operator IE func(arg1, arg2) or 1 + 2.
Also, a lot of editors won't unindent on backspace of spaces indentation, so I end up messing up the indentation with a 3/4 indent
The sole purpose of the tab key is for instructing the editor to insert four spaces.
To insert a........ TAB. Not four or any n number of space but TAB
After years of ass-whopping by python interpreter for stray tab characters, I'm now mentally rejecting the existence of tab character in my computing devices.
Isnt that only because you "mixed" spaces with tabs? I have had no issues with python and tabs with no spaces for intendation
*three spaces.
Actually, let's make that two.
Team Tab Supremacy Unite!
Hell yeah tabs
Let's just avoid indentation at all (jk).
Always remember:
“He's me.” - Obi Wan Kenobi
As a fan of tabs I see this as an absolute win
Is this real or am I eating the onion
You're eating the onion. I could see some government agency deciding that they as an agency would standardize on tabs, though even that would be a stretch. But not the White House.
By adopting a tab-delimited approach to softwaremaking, ONCD is ensuring that the technical community’s expertise is reflected in how the Federal Government approaches these inconsistencies. Creators of software can have an outsized impact on the Nation’s shared security by factoring standardized tabulations into the development process.
For anyone who doesn’t want to read that whole thing.
Lol I almost fell for it. I just Ctrl+F'd the link, no occurence of "tab" in the press release :D
Spaces are supiror because its easier to text boxes.
I mean where even is the tab on my phone?
Right
here
Edit: til tabs make code blocks in lemmy
Another person who codes on their phone.
I bow to your greatness.
I actually does code a bit in phone(and only codes in phone) and still preffer tabs. Hate it when some editors auto spaceify it. Also you can have tabs on keyboard by installing abother keyboard app
But like... Correct me if I'm wrong but in my experience tab does not always equal 4 spaces.
E: thanks all. I didn't fully understand.
That's one of the benefits of using tabs. Some people might like 4 spaces for indentation, whereas others like 2 spaces. If you use tabs, you can configure your editor to use whatever tab size you want, and they're just stored as tab characters in the file.
Tabs for indentation, spaces for alignment (eg for ASCII art).
That's why it's also a big accessibility feature. With big font sizes, four spaces are distracting but you can configure tabs to show up as one character, which is way more reasonable with font sizes larger than usual
I had a colleague that is legally blind in my second real job. The dude is brilliant (and hilarious) but these things would significantly enable or screw up his productivity. I have always felt fortunate to have had direct butt in seat exposure to the importance of accessibility at such a young age.
You’re misunderstanding. In this case it means “one tab character” instead of “four space characters”.
'Bout time.
- a Go fan.
Yay at least this comment section has majority tab lovers!
The enlightened among us use spaces for indentation and tabs for alignment.