Tabs versus Spaces in Source Code

[Ant]

> Ant wrote:
> > spaces. Pragmatically though, you can't tell in an editor where spaces
> > are used and where tabs are used.

> Um, I don't follow this.  If you can't tell the editor where
> tabs/spaces are used, who does?

Re-read my post. Note the key word 'in'.

> > Perhaps if editors colored the background of tab characters differently
> > from spaces this wouldn't be a problem,

> Some editors do.

Some isn't nearly good enough to solve the problem.

> python -tt

Not the default behaviour, and so not good enough for tabs to be a good
indent character.

> > In reality, neither of these are likely
> > to be implemented any time soon!
>
> um

OK. Widely implemented and default behaviour.

Your points are fine if you are working by yourself (hell you could use
Perl and it wouldn't matter ;-) ), but in for example an open source
project where work is distributed over developers working in vastly
different environments, tabs currently aren't a workable option.