tabs do WHAT?

[Skip Montanaro]

    Thomas> If braces are used, you can choose between a myriad of tools to
    Thomas> get consistent indentation (there are lots of C and C++
    Thomas> beautifiers out there). 

You have the same problem here as getting people to indent code in a sane
manner.  Getting people to use indent or similar tools on a consistent basis
is like herding cats.

Regarding screwing up the indentation, many people have pointed out that
editors such as vim and emacs support indentation fairly well.  In practice,
if your editor supports controlled indentation, it just isn't a problem.  On
those extremely rare occasions in the past six years or so of Python
programming, when I have had problems, emacs' ediff-revision command has let
me compare (in a nicely highlighted fashion) the current buffer with the
last version I checked back into CVS.

Skip Montanaro | http://www.mojam.com/
skip at mojam.com | http://www.musi-cal.com/
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